Touch of Grey
by D. M. Evans
Summary: Dreams of Angel dying bring Faith back to LA but when he refuses help it's up to her and Spike to save him.
1. Dreams of Death

TOUCH OF GREY

By D.M. Evans

Disclaimer - All characters are the property of J. Whedon et al. I own none of them and make no profit off of this. I just like to day trip in his world.

Rating - R for violence

feedback - Yes, please, connorsdom@yahoo.com

Spoilers - Set in AtS S5, Up to "_Destiny_" then goes AR from there.

Summary - Dreams of Angel dying bring Faith back to L.A. only to find him uninterested in her help so she teams up with Spike to save Angel.

Written for the Warm Champagne Vampire challenge. Challenge requirements at end of the story.

You can find the challenge at: ;

Author's Notes - Thanks to Sharon and Chris for editing this monster and giving me lots of cool ideas for it! 

_A lie never lives to be old. ___

_Sophocles - Acrisius. Frag. 59. _

CHAPTER ONE 

Faith didn't like the new Wolfram and Hart building. She couldn't fathom why she was standing there giving the guard a hard time. Angel shouldn't be inside this place. She had thought it was a bad joke when they had called Angel to let him know what went down in Sunnydale and he told them what he was doing now. Working for the enemy, she couldn't wrap her mind around it. These were the evil bastards who had paid her to kill him. It had made no sense and she had put it out of her mind, too overwhelmed by the new Slayers to even think about it. If she thought about it, she'd start screaming at him. Since she didn't have many friends, and Angel being the best among them, she didn't want to lose him. That worked until the dreams started.

"No one is expecting you," the guard was telling her for the tenth time. "You're not on the client list. You have to wait here until I can clear you."

"Look, I've told you I'm a friend of your big boss. Call Angel and ask. Call Wes, Fred, Gunn; anyone. Just do it before I lose my temper." She smiled at him as cold as the winter she had just left behind in London.

"Faith."

Hearing the soft voice, Faith turned and saw Wes heading her way. Despite fighting at his side, Faith felt nervous around Wes. He had every right to kill her, torture her like she had done him but to his credit he hadn't said a word about it when he had helped break her out of jail. However, he was a changed man, stronger, almost scary, more like she had been. She wasn't sure it was a good thing.

"I've been trying to get a hold of you guys for days, kept leaving messages with that idiot Harmony. She said she'd pass them on when things weren't crazy. Giles got so pissed, he put me on a plane to come out here in person," Faith said, flipping off the guard. 

Wes' blue eyes widened a bit. "It must have been very important. Let's not talk about it in the lobby."

To Faith's surprise, Wes led her outside and down several city blocks. He stopped in front of a hot dog stand. "Are you hungry, Faith? If you just flew in, it had to be a couple of very long flights."

"Hideously long." She cast a leery glance at the cart. "I'm hungry but I'm not sure I'm hot dog hungry."

Wes smiled. "Fair enough. Probably just as well. I wouldn't be surprised if Wolfram and Hart's surveillance extended as far as this stand. There's an English-style pub just a few blocks away that I like."

Faith made a face. "I just left England. I was lucky not to starve death. The food sucked."

"Common misconception of our cuisine. Besides, I know we have more than our share of American fast food there." Wes waved her off. "The pub has hamburgers and very good fish and chips."

"Okay." Faith followed him to the pub. It did have a passing resemblance to pubs she had been in in London. It was fairly empty since it was between the hours of lunch and dinner. No one was playing darts or pool. A few hard core drinkers were at the bar and some people at the tables eating.

"Hi, Wes," the mousy-looking waitress said, heading their way. "How about that booth?" She pointed towards the window.

"I'd rather the table in the back corner." Wes indicated the table and the waitress led them to it.

"What can I get you to drink? Your usual?" the waitress asked.

"That would be lovely."

"I'll just have water," Faith said, surprising herself. She wanted a beer but she expected it to put her right to sleep.

"What was wrong with the booth?" Faith asked after the waitress left them with menus.

"Sat there last time." Wes shrugged. "It's a good idea to never have a regular table just in case. Besides, it's not good to sit in the window where anything could see you.

"Getting paranoid, Wes?" She grinned.

"I work for Wolfram and Hart. I am not so naive as to think they have completely changed. I wouldn't put it past them to have us all under surveillance." His eyes dimmed briefly like a cloud moving over the face of the sun. "I doubt Angel knows half of what is going on...none of us do."

"Paranoia's good." Faith nodded appreciatively. "I wish I just understood why you guys were working for those bastards. You know what they hired me to do to Angel. Evil doesn't just change."

"And yet they appear to have done just that," Wes said as if unconvinced of it himself. "At least on the surface. Don't worry, Faith, none of us have blindly put our trust in Wolfram and Hart, however tempting they make it."

"Think I don't know that? Lindsey and Lilah watched me beat a coworker for the hell of it. She was amused and his reaction was to change dinner plans." A violent shiver coursed through her body. "These are bad people."

"Aren't you proof people can change?" Wes asked and Faith became instantly interested in the menu. "Besides, Lindsey deserted them a few years ago and as you know Lilah's dead. Ah, Mandy." Wes looked up over Faith's shoulder at the waitress who had come back. She set an ale in front of Wes and handed Faith her water. "I'm ready to order. Faith?"

She twisted to look at the waitress. "I'll just have the bacon cheeseburger and can I have onion rings instead of fries?"

"Sure, hon."

"I'll have the Desperate Dan pie," Wes said, handing back the menu and Mandy moved off

"Desperate Dan?"

"The pie's based on a comic book character by that name. It's a meat pie. They make very good puddings here, too."

Faith made a face. "Yeah, with beef fat in it."

"Not all puddings are that type. We do know how to make desserts," he said, miffed. He took a long swallow of ale, looking pleased to have it. "So what was so important that Giles sent you across the pond?"

"I've been having dreams about Angel."

"A Slayer's prophetic dream?" Wesley's body tensed with excitement at the idea.

Faith would have been amused if the dreams hadn't been so disturbing. "Giles was pretty jonesed that I was getting in touch with my Slayer heritage. Hell, he was excited that it was still possible to have those kinda dreams. We don't know what the fuck Buffy did to the Slayer power, spreading it all over the damn place like that."

Wes bobbed his head. "An understandable concern."

"Of course, who knows if it is a prophetic dream." Faith shrugged. "It is a repetitive one. I can tell you that much. Never really had one of them before. That's why we started calling to warn Angel but we never could get through. Harmony kept giving us the runaround. Angel never answers his phone, either."

Wes' lips twitched up. "He's not very technologically savvy at times. We have been terribly busy, however. Teenagers have been turning up dismembered."

Faith wrinkled her nose. "Ugly. So, when can I talk to Angel? I have to tell him about that dream, 'cause I'm dreaming something big and bad is killing Angel. I never see what or how only that he's dust." Faith saw the startled expression on Wesley's pale face and felt her heart seize. "I'm too late, aren't I? Oh, fuck."

"No." Wes held up his hands. "But very nearly so. Angel got surprised last night. He barely escaped."

Faith shook her head as if to clear it. What could have taken Angel by surprise? From the look on Wes' stubble-cloaked face, he was equally shocked by it. "Surprised by what?"

"He says he didn't get a good look at it and given he took a full load of holy water to the face, that's hardly surprising." Something in Wes' voice was off, almost as if he didn't believe Angel.

"Angel's hurt and you have me sitting here for lunch?" Faith popped up, nearly taking the table with her.

Wes caught her arm, pulling her down. "Angel will heal, Faith. You can't do anything for him now but later, if he needs you, you'll be too tired and hungry to help so eat."

"And if something comes for him while I'm here?" Faith tugged free but didn't try to get back up.

"Spike's guarding him," Wes said. 

Faith made a face. "Spike on top of being hurt. Are we punishing Angel for walking into a trap?"

Wes smiled briefly. "It would certainly seem that way. Fred, Gunn and I are taking turns watching Spike watching Angel."

"Don't trust Spike?" Faith's dark eyes narrowed only slightly.

Wes took another contemplative drink of his ale. "Buffy and the others might. The rest of us believe he has his own agenda. We don't quite trust him."

"Probably smart. Those two sound like a bad combo anyhow," Faith replied.

"They do have an extensive history of mutual antagonism," Wes admitted. "And Spike can be highly abrasive."

"Does it on purpose," Faith said.

"Doubtless. He can get you angry enough to make careless errors that he can turn to his advantage."

Faith flipped her hair back. "Sounds like you got a handle on him. Good, 'cause I was thinking you all had been infected by brain suckers making you work for Wolfram and Hart."

Wesley's lips thinned. "My brain remains unsucked."

The waitress hesitated a moment, overhearing that. She set down the plates of food. "Anything else I can get for you?"

"I'm fine," Wes said as Faith chowed down without preamble. He shrugged and Mandy headed for her next table. "Slow down or you'll choke."

"What are you? My Mom?" She crammed an onion ring into her mouth as if daring him to do something about it.

"I should hope I would have imparted better table manners," Wes said lightly.

She flipped him off. "Don't turn back into that ponce you used to be."

He smiled, showing all his teeth. "Ponce? Dare I ask when you picked up that term?"

"Giles kept moaning about us mangling the Queen's English so we started picking up a word a day. Ponce, tosser, blighter, shag-bag, leg over, get pissed." She grinned broadly.

Wes laughed lightly. "I'm sure Rupert appreciates your attempts to sound like Spike."

"Oh, you should hear what comes out of his mouth when he's hanging out with some of his old buddies and he doesn't know we're around. Willow, B and I were spying on him, making a game of counting how many Spikeisms he'd come up with when he's out at the pubs." Faith scowled. "Then he caught us. Did you know he could make your skin turn neon pink?"

"Serves you right. Never mess with a mage, Faith. It'll only end badly." His blue eyes danced.

"Where were you a few months ago when I was practically glowing in the dark?" She polished off the rest of her sandwich.

She filled him in on the things Giles was doing to help rebuild the Council. She wished he'd eat faster. She didn't want to wait on seeing Angel but Wes wouldn't be rushed. Soon enough, they were back in Wolfram and Hart's building heading to the penthouse suite. Fred and Spike were watching tv when they got there.

"Faith, I heard you were in the building," Spike said, getting up. He surprised her with a hug. Spike coping a feel didn't come as a shock. 

"Here to help the big guy. Any chance I can talk to him...alone?" she asked, giving them a knowing look.

"Sure. I'm all for getting off Angel duty," Spike said. "Just get me when you need me. I'll be in my suite trying to get a nap."

"I'll just go back to my lab," Fred said. "He might be asleep, though." She pointed to the bedroom.

"He'll want to wake up for this," Faith promised and didn't wait to see if they were going to leave.

She wasn't prepared for what she saw when she turned on the soft lighting in Angel's bedroom. The sheet, red and apparently silk, was rumpled around his waist. At any other time, it might be sexy but now it just highlighted the paleness of his skin. His chest and belly were bright red and covered in blisters. His shoulders and face were more deeply pitted, to muscle and bone in places. His left eye was covered over by gauze. The right one opened, blood shot, and stared at her. What was left of his lips twisted into something that might have been a smile. The room stank of cooked flesh.

"Nice to see you, Faith," he slurred, like his tongue was too thick for his mouth.

"Wish I could say the same. Someone fucked you up good." She sat on the bed in the crook of his hip. "Demon?"

"Don't know...don't think so. I got hit with a water balloon filled with holy water." Angel hitched up a bit on the bed.

Faith pulled him up, resting him against her so she could fluff up his pillows and let him recline back against the cushioned headboard. "Okay?"

"I'm good." He settled in gingerly.

"Water balloon? Why didn't me and B ever think of that?" 

"Has your sense of fun." He grimaced. "Personally, if I can avoid having this happening again, I'd be happy."

"Where did it happen? It can't be easy to carry around loaded water balloons."

"Outside of Madigan's, a pub Doyle used to take me to not to far from the college. Doyle used to like to girl watch there. I go there when I'm trying to avoid Spike. Lots of IRA types in Madigan's. He opens his mouth there, someone might just cut out his English tongue." Angel managed a happy look at that thought. 

Faith licked her lips considering not only what Angel had been up to but the rather unwanted image of a tongueless Spike. Then again, there could be advantages to that, no whining for one. "So your attacker might have just waited for you to show?"

Angel's eye closed briefly as if his energy was gone then he rallied. "Thinking that's how it happened."

"And you didn't see the bastard?"

"No."

Faith didn't believe him. She wasn't sure why but she didn't. "Uh-huh. Did you lose the eye?"

Angel's fingers brushed the gauze. "Nearly. It's burnt...can't see out of it. Should be better by tomorrow."

"You and Xander, only his eye won't grow back."

Angel nodded. "Buffy told me about it. So why are you here, Faith? You had to have been en route before I got hurt. Didn't you like Europe?"

"I loved it. Really love London where we are now but I didn't like being the House Mom to a bunch of new Slayers and being held up as a bad example." Faith crossed her arms, a frown tugging at her lips. "I know why they're doing it. No one wants a repeat of Sunnydale but...."

"But it hurts," Angel finished for her, his fingers straying to the peeling flesh on his face. She slapped them away, shuddering. He reached down and covered himself with the sheet best he could. "Trust me, Faith, I know. Between the 'look what happens when Angel's happy' riff from my mortal friends and getting held up as a 'don't let this happen to you' by the vampires, I know how you feel. But that can't be the whole reason you're here."

She shrugged. "We did want to check up on you, Angel. B's concerned but she's just not ready to be here, you know."

"I know," he said sadly, putting a hand over his face. "I wouldn't blame her if she never wanted to see me or Spike ever again. You don't need to be concerned about me."

"No, actually I do." Faith touched his arm, gingerly, not sure how much pain vampires actually felt. From Angel's face she was guessing it was as much as a normal person. "Angel, you're working for Wolfram and Hart. You have me half convinced you've lost your fucking mind."

He scowled or tried to. The burnt face manifestation of the emotion was far creepier. "I haven't. You don't have the whole story, Faith."

"I don't want it. I told you that when we had this argument on the phone. You know how I feel about it. I wanted to come to L.A. and kick some sense into your dumb ass, make this look like nothing." She gestured at his scalded body. "But I didn't. Then the dream started. Giles thinks it's one of those fortune-telling Slayer dreams. We tried to call. Harmony never put us through."

He curled what was left of his lips. "She's an idiot."

"No kidding. I couldn't get through to you or Wes either." She shot him an accusatory look. "Wes told me about the dismembered kids, well, not much but enough to let me know you guys have your hands full. Giles put me on the plane to tell you in person."

"How bad is this dream?" Angel sounded weary, like he couldn't bear one more burden.

"Well, not apocalyptic shit if that's what you're worried about." She tossed her hair back.

Angel sighed, his eye shutting.

"But I keep seeing you dying. You get turned to dust in my dreams," Faith said and the eye flickered open again. "Thought that would get your attention, 'specially since I get here and you've already been fragged."

Angel hitched himself up. "You saw this happening to me?"

She shook her head. "I don't see how you die or who kills you. I just know that you get killed and I keep thinking its someone you know who does you in in my dreams. You weren't on guard and you end up dead."

"So you think I know who doused me with holy water." Angel bristled at the idea and Faith had to wonder why then suspected her feeling was dead on.

"Yeah."

"Well, I don't," he said grimly.

Faith still didn't believe him but for the life of her couldn't figure out why he'd lie. Maybe one of his crew had gone schizo and was after Angel and the vampire was protecting him. She had her money on Gunn since he was the one who let Wolfram and Hart screw with his brain. "Okay. Anyhow, since no one really wants you to be fitting in an ashtray...well, except maybe Xander, they sent me here. Giles thinks you're too important a source of knowledge to let die. Me, I'm thinking if you're working for Wolfram and Hart, knowledgeable isn't the word for you."

He tensed. "Faith..."

She held up her hand. "Anyhow, that's why I'm here. To save you."

Angel snorted. "Been alive a long time and there are days when being dust doesn't sound bad. Days like when Spike would ghost into my bedroom and harass me all night." He sighed. "I'm glad he got his body back. Those nights were getting very disturbing."

Faith gave him a bemused look. "I can only imagine. No, on second thought I don't want to. But, Angel, this attitude."

He held up a hand. "I'm not going to commit suicide, Faith, just being honest with how I feel. If I die now, Spike wins the shanshu by default. That alone is reason to keep living."

Faith gave him a dark look. "Wes told Giles about the shanshu prophecy. He told Buffy. Buffy's pretty pissed neither of you told her about it."

Angel's pained expression made Faith wish she hadn't mentioned it. "I didn't want to believe in it...only I do...always did even when I was too disheartened to care."

"Guess we've all felt low like that from time to time," Faith said. "I just don't want you giving up 'cause I won't let you, no more than you did me."

He smiled, part of his lip cracking and peeling away. He caught the dead flesh and pitched it in the garbage can by the bed. "Sorry. And thanks. It's appreciated."

Faith sighed. "Okay, the heavy shit's out of the way, so now what?"

"I'm pretty much bed ridden until I heal up a little more. Wes and the others could probably use your help with finding the killer of those children. It's possible my attack was related to that or to anyone and everyone who hates the changes in Wolfram and Hart and wants me dead." Angel relaxed some. "Maybe sometime, once I'm looking less like something out of a slasher flick, I'll take you out somewhere to thank you for coming to my rescue again. I still owe you for saving me from myself."

"We're even for that. You saved me, I saved you. Right now, I'm pretty exhausted. I just flew in but I could sack out on the couch to make sure no one sneaks in and finishes you off," Faith offered. 

"We have suites for clients. I'll have Harmony set you up in one," Angel said. "Send Spike back to watch over me. He likes it. Makes him think I'll owe him down the line."

Faith pulled a long face. "Okay but I still don't like this, Angel, you living and working here. I told Buffy what I know about what these people. They've done so much evil I don't see how you can trust them."

"I never said I trusted them, Faith. I don't. I don't even trust things that seem to have worked for the good since I've been here. The good things...I trust them the least," he said grimly.

"Then why are you doing this?" Her exasperation echoed through his bedroom.

"I have to. I can't explain it better than that."

"Hmmm, maybe Xander was right."

Angel lifted his head off the feather pillow. "About what?"

"When I filled them in on Wolfram and Hart, we wondered first if you were Angelus again but Willow's test said the spell was holding and you didn't sound insane. Neither did the others so we started playing the 'Angel's dumber than' game trying to find a logical reason for you doing this. Xander said he finally found someone dumber than him." There was only a hint of humor in Faith's eyes.

"Dumber than Xander? That hurts." He gave her a crushed look.

Faith shoved her dark hair back. "Not meant to be a compliment, Angel."

"I'm not an idiot, Faith." He clamped his jaw shut as if swallowing his ire. "But I guess I can be occasionally foolish. Don't think I haven't considered it. I'm not ready to blindly trust Wolfram and Hart but right now they're a useful tool."

"Yeah, that's what the nuclear bomb guys thought, too." Faith held up her hands. "I know, I know, enough already. That's the last you'll hear about it from me."

"Thank you." He fumbled for the phone on the bed stand. Faith passed it to him and he arranged for her to have a place to crash.


	2. Murder and Subterfuge

__CHAPTER TWO

Spike knocked on the door to where Harmony had stowed Faith. He wished someone had told him Faith was going to be in town. He had left Harmony babysitting the giant Poof while he went to find the Slayer. She didn't look happy to see him, or maybe it was just sheer exhaustion. Spike was betting on a mix of the two. "Bad time?"

"The flight here sucked the life out of me. All I want is to go to bed." She leveled her dark eyes on him. "Alone."

He snorted. "I get the message. Won't stay long. I just had a few questions but they can wait."

"Nah, have a seat. I can spare a few." She flopped down on the love seat, gesturing at the couch for him.

Spike watched her body settle. Faith had a nice one, nicer than Buffy's he had to admit, darker, a little more lush, not quite Cordelia curvy but nice enough. Spike sat and held up his cigarette pack waggling it. "Want one?"

She made a 'gimme' motion with her curled fingers and Spike lit one for her. She puffed happily. "Worse thing to happen to me in prison." She blew smoke rings for emphasis.

"I know it's old-fashioned but I don't like seeing women smoking." He took a deep drag. "Just as well most of them are quitting."

Faith laughed in her smoky, whiskey-throated way. He liked her rasp. "I didn't peg you for a liking the lady-like girls."

"You never met Dru." Spike shut his eyes, picturing his black rose. "I'm not sure I ever even saw her in pants."

"Dresses give me hives." Faith shuddered. "And to answer your questions before you even ask, they're all fine including Buffy. Giles told you Anya died saving Andrew."

"Bloody waste that was," Spike said unapologetically. "Got me wishing it was the other way around. I liked Anya."

Faith took a drag. "You feel guilty even thinking like that. We haven't thought much about her death...about any of it in general. We've been too busy tracking down new Slayers and it gives us enough to think about...which is good."

"I'm glad I missed out on all that estrogen. Poor ol' Rupert's probably plucked himself bald, worrying like a mother hen." Spike grinned.

Faith choked, smoke exploding from her lips. "I'm telling him you said that."

"Don't you dare." Spike levered himself up and headed for the door. "I'll let you get some sleep."

"Thanks, because you're supposed to be watching Angel, anyhow." Faith stretched, casting a longing look at her bedroom. 

"Sodding waste of my time. There are so many bloody alarms and spells on this place he's safe as houses." Spike shrugged. "Besides Harmony's babysitting him."

"That's punishment," Faith accused and Spike only grinned. "Do you have any idea who did this to Angel?"

Spike shook his head. "He's being really tight lipped...no lipped, whatever. Do I think he knows more than he's telling us, yeah. He's trying to protect someone from something. He gets like that. Well, not with me since he'd be having a party with my dust as confetti if I were to buy it."

Faith shuddered. "Now there's an image."

"Hey, this time I left out the part about him being naked and rolling in the dust." Spike smirked.

"Spike, I'm warning you." Faith wagged a finger at him and he only grinned. "So, what do we do about this?"

Spike shrugged. "Don't know, don't really care. Got other things to worry about."

"Say what you want, Spike, you're worried about him. I can see it." Faith summoned up a smile. 

Spike glared, hating she could read him. "Yeah, right. Speaking of my other concerns, need to go handle one of them now." Spike swept out of the room.

He went into Kala Willingham's office. The young lawyer smiled, seeing him. She reminded him of Robin's mother in coloring, even in how she wore her hair. Still, the resemblance to Nikki wasn't what drew him to her. She was convenient. As one of the up and comers, she was situated such that her office shared a wall with Eve's office. He got the benefits of meaningless office sex and eavesdropping opportunities all at the same time. 

Kala rocked back in her chair. "Sorry, Spike, I've got a meeting in five minutes."

"S'okay luv. I'll just sack out on the couch for a while if you don't mind." He collapsed down on it, smiling seductively up at her.

"I don't mind. I just wish that I had your job of doing...what is it you do?" She grinned, getting up.

"I do plenty. It's just behind the scenes," he assured her.

Laughing, she gave him a kiss then left. Spike watched her go, loving the way her dress highlighted her well-formed ass. That was the one thing he had over Angel, he could have all the sex he wanted without fear and he had moved passed celebrating his return to the flesh and was into drowning out memories of Buffy with all the sex and booze he could fit into a day. That, too, had already gotten old but still a good shag with Kala and Harmony, not at the same time unfortunately, was something he looked forward to. Spike settled on the couch and listened intently to what was going on in Eve's office. He had heard her earlier on the phone trying to dissuade someone from making an appearance and he knew she had failed, listening to the time she set up for the meeting. She had told the man on the phone he was lucky Angel was out of action for the day which was the only reason she was even allowing it. Spike had to know what had rattled Eve.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this," a man was saying. Spike didn't recognize the voice.

"What did you expect, Daniel?" Eve asked. From her tone, Spike could imagine her sitting on the edge of her desk, her legs swinging putting on that little girl act of hers. There was nothing proper or professional about Eve and if he had thought Darla's innocent little girl act was bad, she was a freaking acting genius in comparison to Eve.

"You had to have brought me back for a reason." The man sounded desperate. "What you did was wrong."

"And here I would have thought you'd be overjoyed to be reunited with your son," Eve bubbled. Spike's brow furrowed. He wished he had a clue as to what was going on.

"It's against God's will to resurrect the dead," Daniel snapped.

"Why? He does it occasionally. Besides, you're the one who killed yourself, Daniel, and it was for nothing. We're giving you a second chance, so be grateful."

Spike took note of the snarky in Eve's voice. He had lived with enough headstrong women to know that was a bad thing.

"And what of my son's chance?" Daniel asked. "He's an empty shell."

"Healing takes time, Daniel," Eve said, almost mockingly. "He had a severe breakdown. His little brain just couldn't handle it and all the terrible things Angel did to the boy took their toll, right down to that spell that robbed him of himself."

Spike sat up. Angel hurting a kid? That sounded more like Angelus and it was more than enough to whet his appetite to know more.

"I can not believe even he would hurt Steven."

"Uh-uh, Daniel, we don't say that name here," Eve said.

'Steven?' Spike got up and grabbed a note pad. He wrote that down.

"And you should be happy that the boy isn't a babbling idiot at this point," Eve continued. 

"He's not far from it." The pain in the man's voice gave Spike an idea why he was so adamant about meeting with Eve. "He doesn't really remember me, only that he used to love me like a father. He barely speaks. He just prowls about all day and all night. It's all I can do to make him sleep and eat a bit and without the drugs you've given me I couldn't even do that."

"Daniel, all you have to do is keep aiming him at demons, keep him sharp and it'll all work out."

"I can't...he needs help that I can't give him."

"He'll get it, Daniel. He will slowly come back to himself, just keep working with him. And try not to let him kill Angel ahead of schedule. The Senior Partners weren't too happy that Angel nearly got dusted last night," Eve said.

Spike wished he had a recording device so Angel could hear this. He might even tell the giant poof that he was being set up

"This is very dangerous," Daniel said.

"Just keep control of him, Daniel." The snap in Eve's voice told Spike volumes. Eve was worried, playing some Machiavellian game that could kill her, too, if it went wrong, no doubt. He could only wonder what she was up to. He heard the man moving toward the door so Spike jumped up and ran for his. He had to see who Daniel was.

This man was important enough for Eve to take a risk, especially if they were trying to screw over Angel. Daniel knew who hurt Spike's grandsire and part of Spike was pissed about that and another part wanted to send the man flowers. Spike cautiously peered out the door. Daniel was a rather ordinary mortal man from the scent of him. A good head of hair, moved like a hunter and had the deadest eyes Spike had ever seen. His gut feeling that this man was trouble deepened.

Daniel put a wide brimmed hat on. While terribly out of fashion Spike saw it did two things; it hid the man's face and the hat called eyes to it. The hat would be all anyone would notice. Spike started down the hall after him. The two men stopped and stared at each other for a brief moment." 

"Spike!" The vampire whirled, hearing Gunn's voice. "Aren't you supposed to be looking out for Angel?" 

"Harm took my place," Spike said, willing Gunn to go away.

"Good, then you can sit in on Wes' meeting about those murdered kids," Gunn said.

Spike cast a glance down the hall. Daniel was already gone. Spike wrinkled his nose. "Do I have time for a smoke?"

Gunn scowled, knocking a piece of fuzz off his lapel. "No."

Spike kept his cursing to himself. Gunn had just cost him an opportunity to learn something, maybe stack the decks in his favor. Still, he needed to keep on the good side of these people. He rather liked Gunn at any rate and helping to catch a kid killer would probably count in his favor if he seriously wanted the Shanshu. He wasn't sure he did. Part of him wanted to screw over his grandsire. Part of him wanted to be human again so he could make one last attempt at winning Buffy.

Spike knew it was futile. If he did fulfill the prophecy and by some miracle it was in Buffy's life time, he knew she'd be furious at him stealing what should have been Angel's. The argument that if Angel was really meant to Shanshu he would do so, no matter what Spike did wasn't likely to hold any weight with Buffy . Even if it did, Spike knew he'd end up like Captain Cardboard, shunted aside, relegated to the background, left behind because he was too human. Riley had moved on. 

Spike knew he needed to move on as well because he knew deep down it would never be him she honestly loved. He was there in her darkness and eventually she'd come to hate him for taking advantage of her weakness, no matter how much she needed him at the time. The best thing he could do was just disappear, start life again by himself for once in his life. Still, he wasn't ready so he followed Gunn to the meeting.

He picked up the Krispy Kreme Key Lime donut before Gunn could and let the key lime goo coat his tongue. He could almost taste the tartness. Gunn frowned.

"You can't taste so why do you insist on stealing my donuts." Gunn tossed himself in a chair.

"I can taste...just not like you can. 'Sides, eating's social. Peaches keeps forgetting that," Spike said.

Gunn rolled his eyes and looked over at Fred and Wes. "Are we any closer to figuring out what's killing these kids?"

"I've been researching the runes painted on the bodies," Wes said. "And I'm very much afraid of what it means."

"Big bad demon?" Gunn seemed almost bored with that idea.

"Forensics aren't done yet so we don't know what kind it might be. It might take days," Fred said. "But Wolfram and Hart has extensive demonic genome banks."

"Tell them to start looking for primers for human DNA to do the PCR," Wes said.

"Human?" Fred's eyes went huge.

"You can find the symbols left at the crime scenes in a half dozen magic-related books at Barnes and Noble. Azazel, Mammon, Baphomet and other devils, half of which aren't even real."

"Wiccans don't do human sacrifice," Gunn protested.

"These would be wanna-be Satanists at best," Wes said.

"Or someone wanting you to think that," Spike said.

"Would they go through a charade this drastic?" Fred sounded unconvinced.

"Why not? A lot of demons know Angel's here doing the do-gooder shite. Embarrassing stuff like that gets around." Spike made a wry face. "And a lot of demons don't like to get their hands dirty so they use humans to do it. Isn't that why Wolfram and Hart exists in the first place?" Spike licked the last of the filling off his lips.

"Not anymore," Gunn grated out, his fingers griping the table hard.

"Whatever gets you through," Spike said. So much for him being good.

Fred's phone rang breaking the tension. "Yes? Really? Good, bring it to conference room 212a." She hung up. "They have copies of the coroners's reports on the first four victims."

"Regardless of what they show, I think we should stick to our plan," Wes said.

"Which is?" Spike asked.

"Stake out local colleges in the area where all the victims were found." Gunn wore a 'where were you last meeting' look on his face. "All of the victims are college-aged and all but one attended colleges near where their bodies were found. We were going to go out in teams of two. It was going to be me and Angel, Wes and Fred and you and Harmony, Spike."

"Not in this life time," Spike said. "I'll take the Slayer. She should be rested up by tonight."

"I was going to pair with Faith now that Angel's on the injured list," Gunn replied.

"You take Harmony," Spike said. "Faith and I work together pretty good."

"But we thought you'd want to be with Harmony." Fred pushed up her reading glasses. "She's your-"

"Shagbag," Spike I interrupted. "Nothing more. Besides me and Harmony don't work well together. Last time we did, I staked her one."

"Let him go with Faith." Wes held up his hands. "There'll be less whinging on that way. I'll go with Harmony if you'd rather go with Fred."

"No, that's fine. I'll take Harmony." Gunn gave Spike a sour look. "But I have a gut feeling saying 'beware of anything Spike wants this much'."

"Good instinct," Wes muttered.

Before Spike could summon up a retort, someone knocked on the door and Gunn called for them to enter. One of Fred's lab-coated underlings came in with a thin file in her hand.

"What did you find out, Susan?" Fred asked.

The young blond opened the file. "It's the same in every case. The blood was drained from the body through a slit throat. All showed signs of being suspended from their ankles, most likely to facilitate drainage of blood. All the dismemberment was post mortem and done with a large knife and not a saw. Clotting at the neck wound indicates all the victims were alive when their throats were cut. The medical examiners believe the killings to be ritualistic and that it was probably the same group of killers."

"Group?" Fred broke in, a worried look on her face.

Susan nodded. "The angles of the cut marks show at least two killers, one right handed and the other left with varying degrees of strength and precision. Some victims have multiple cuts in the bone, trying to hack it off. The limbs in others were cut clean through. They also said it's likely the victims were murdered elsewhere and arranged for the police to find."

"Has toxicology come back on any of them?" Spike asked and everyone stared. "Hey, so I watch _CSI_, leave me alone."

Susan smiled shyly. "All the victims had blood alcohol levels over the legal limit and in one there was evidence of GHB, the date rape drug. Chances are it was given to all of them but dissipated in the other victims."

"Drunk then drugged, sounds like your ugly little theory has some merit, Wes," Gunn said, making a face.

"What if it is humans?" Fred asked. "We're used to doing the demon killing thing."

"You stop them and hand 'em over to the coppers," Spike said. "Should be easier than what we're used to dealing with."

"We've done similar things before like when Cordelia got pregnant...oh, that was before you and Gunn joined us, Fred," Wes said.

"Pregnant?"

"Some guys were seducing young ladies so a particularly gruesome demon could implant his seed in them, nasty business. Gunn kept Cordelia and I safe the time Wolfram and Hart declared war on us. Lindsey lost a hand in that undertaking."

"Or like Dr Seidel," Fred said, then looked away quickly.

"It's never easy facing humans. You could accidently hurt them," Wes said sympathetically.

"It's hard to think humans could do this to one another," Fred said.

"They do it all the time, luv. You don't need monsters like me and Angel. Humans are pretty terrible by themselves," Spike said.

"I would love to debate that." A glum expression pulled down Wes' face. "But I'm afraid I can't."

"Susan, is there anything else?" Fred asked.

I'm afraid not."

"Thanks."

Gunn waited until Susan was gone to hand out the assignments as to who was taking which colleges. "Fred, you and Wes can start at any times. The rest of us will start at sun down."

"Works for me. Faith will get in a good long nap by then," Spike said, getting up. He headed for his suite, with his notes about Daniel hiding in his pocket. He needed time to think of what to do about that but until then, he needed to think through the things he wanted to say to the Slayer.


	3. First Encounters

__CHAPTER THREE

"How'd I get stuck with you?" Faith asked as she and Spike loitered on campus. There were a few kids around, not as many as Faith figured would be there had it been a weekend but more than she expected for a school night. 

"I asked for you." Spike lit up.

"Why?" Faith took his cigarettes.

He handed over the lighter. "It was you or Harmony."

"Good choice."

"I thought so." He leered. "'Sides, you and I need to talk."

Faith gave him a suspicious look, thinking she was still too tired to deal with any weeping and wailing over Buffy. She just didn't see what it was about B that attracted amorous vampires. "About what?"

"Things."

"Do you really want to go back over that day?" She hoped her tone would put him off.

He took a long drag. "Not really. It hurt enough the first time around and you've already given me the 'they're doing great' speech. I was thinking I never got the chance to say it was bloody good fun fighting with you and I'm glad you made it out alive. And that wasn't what I wanted to talk about. We've already said all we need to about the past. I wanna know why you're here, Faith. I know about the dreams. You could have told them over the phone, provided anyone would have talked to you. I just thought it might be uncomfortable for you here. I know what you did to Wes and how you ended up in jail."

"Me and Wes are five by five," Faith grated out, shocked that Spike would even bring it up.

He waved her off. "I figured you and he had settled things since he was the one who broke you out of jail but I wanted to say if you were feeling out of place, you could talk to me because, trust me, I know the feeling." He glanced away. "It's not good."

She was touched by his concern because she believed it was genuine and he wasn't playing an angle. Of course, she kept in mind that he might be since this was Spike, after all, but Robin had been teaching her she could trust. "Thanks."

"And I was more curious about that Orpheus trip. Not too many mortals survive the high doses it had to take to bring down Angelus."

"I'm not telling you the inner workings of Angel's mind," Faith said quickly, wishing she knew where Spike was going with this. She knew Buffy trusted the bleached blond but she was not about to hand him anything to hurt Angel. She owed Angel far too much.

"I wouldn't want to know." Spike shuddered. "I want to know...forget it. You two nearly died together and I just don't understand...."

"You want to know what it is about Angel that gets people to make that kind of sacrifice," Faith said, thinking she finally got what he wanted.

Spike nodded. "People willing to die for him, to sign up on his say-so with a law firm known in dozens of dimensions for its evil, all this for a vampire while a real hero like Buffy can't even keep people from tossing her out of her own house."

"I didn't have anything to do with that." Faith braced for a fight. She didn't want to remember that. She wanted to keep the lid on the painful past.

Spike held up a hand. "I wasn't thinking of you, Faith. You were an outsider and the only other Slayer with experience. I know why they turned to you. I was thinking of her closest friends and family who almost weren't there in that cliched darkest hour shite."

Faith drew in a deep breath. This was something she didn't want to get into. Deep philosophical stuff gave her hives and when it was this close to the heart it was that much worse. Spike sent his cigarette arching away in a glittery shower then shook his head.

"Forget I brought it up. Neither of us have any answers." Spike turned to her with a faint smile on his handsome face. He brushed her hair back out of her eyes. "And you've got enough on your mind worrying about Peaches."

She nodded, relieved beyond words that he let it go. "I was thinking that Buffy did have the same support through most of her time as a Slayer, Spike. Xander's just a plain old human and he's always been there, even if he did try to get between you and her and her and Angel. Cordy was human then, too, no visions, nothing. Willow became a witch because of Buffy. I can't explain what happened there at the end. I don't even want to think about it."

"Fair enough."

Faith cracked her knuckles, watching some football player types roam by. "I had another dream about Angel today when I took that nap, same dream. I tried to tell him but he just didn't seem interested. I don't get it."

Spike snorted, looking around at the pack of young feminine flesh passing him by as he and Faith patrolled. "Angel's got something on his mind. Damn, I'd love to ditch this and find a frat party. You can practically taste the hormones out here."

"I'm with you on that," Faith said, grinding out her cigarette stub underfoot. "The drinking bit. Tasting hormones, that sounds nasty."

"Oh, like you haven't enjoyed the taste of a little baby gravy from time to time." Spike smirked.

Faith made a face. "You're gross."

Spike smoothed out his hair. "I'm a man."

Faith shook her head watching him preen. He could be such a peacock. "Yeah, guess that is the same thing."

"As for Angel, he hasn't been himself since I came back from the dead and I don't think getting stuck with me is the reason." Spike shrugged. "It's like he doesn't care any more, like he's given up."

"That's not the Angel I know," Faith said, watching a pair of young men skateboard by.

"He's not the Angel anyone knows and I've known him for a long time, Faith." Spike leaned against a tree. "This reminds me of when he first lost his soul. He gave up then, too, found us in China. He was all dirty and stinky and scared of me cause I had just bagged me my first Slayer."

"I know. The Orpheus trip came complete with alley life and eating dumpster rats. I don't want to see him end up there again." She slung back her hair. "Especially since I don't see any reason for it. Buffy made it out of Sunnydale alive. He has all you guys so why the sudden change? It can't be Cordelia's coma, can it?"

"Don't know and I don't want a return of the homeless Angel either," Spike said, surprising Faith. "Only because I'm related to him and it looks bad when your grandsire is running around munching rats. I have a reputation to maintain."

Faith snorted, taking in his cock of the walk strut. "A rep as what? Never mind. I don't want to know how you see yourself. I'm not ready for that kind of terror."

A scream in the night cut off any answer Spike might have had. Faith was faster off the mark than Spike but she knew he was right behind her. The kids that were still in the quad whipped past them, running in the opposite direction of the screaming. 

_People really won't get involved,_ she thought bitterly as she honed in on the screams. Around the corner and into one of the garden areas the college had set aside for beautification purposes, Faith saw three girls hugging onto each other, squealing, making her embarrassed to share a sex with such scream queens. Granted the circle of vampires around them were fairly scary. What fascinated Faith more was the skinny boy with them. He was kicking vamp ass like a Slayer, clearing a path through the vampires but the girls wouldn't take it, not even with a man at the far end trying to wave them on. The girls seemed scared of the crossbow the man was using to keep their path clear of vampires. Faith saw he was a fair shot.

She suddenly realized Spike hadn't joined her in the fray. He was staring at the man. The man tipped back his hat as Faith spun into a pack of vampires, a stake in one hand and a knife in the other. She saw he was watching Spike. The man turned and stalked off, calling over his shoulder, "You know where to meet me, son."

In a shower of dust from the vampire he had just torn the head off of, the boy paused . He cocked his head to the side like a dog trying to do a logic problem then went right back to killing vampires. To Faith's surprise, Spike cautiously went after the man. She helped the odd boy, noticing the girls had finally fled. Between them, they made short work of the bloodsucking pack.

"Good work, kid." She clamped a hand on his shoulder.

He knocked her hand away with an inarticulate growl as he backpedaled.

"Whoa, kid, I'm on your side. You saw me dusting them, didn't you?" Faith said, noticing his eyes didn't leave her knife. "I'm not one of them, okay? I just move like they do. I'm not going to hurt you." Her brow furrowed. "You've got blood all over you."

Faith went to put up her blade but he took it as something else entirely and charged her. Faith grunted as his fist caught her in the gut. She barely ducked under the incoming stake. She put away her weapons and went after him barehanded. The strength in his twiggy arm was incredible as she tried to hold him at bay. His legs swept under hers and Faith hit ground. 

He was on top of her in a heartbeat and she knew she probably should call for Spike but she didn't want his help, not yet. He'd never let her live it down. Faith twisted, getting up on the kid's side, trying to hold him down. He kicked and mewed and she realized he was terrified or something because he didn't seem all there.

"Feel it, kid? My warmth? I'm not one of them," she shouted.

He bowled her over and as she rolled in the grass, Faith ended up on eye level in the wet turf with red latex, a balloon and she'd lay odds the wet was holy water. Was this who had surprised Angel? She knew it could have been. The kid was a handful and a mystery to boot. Nothing human was as fast as he was or hit as hard, well nothing that had goolies. Maybe she was wrong about him being a boy, in spite of the big hands. He did have a feminine face.

As he tried to pin her, she reached down and gave things a tug and a twist. He shrieked. _Yep, it's a boy,_ she thought but it didn't explain how he moved like a Slayer. She went to grab him and he bit her.

"Fuck! Stop that, I'm trying to help you up, you dumbass." She hauled him up by the hair this time. "Now, just calm your ass down. I'm not going to hurt you if you just settle."

Grunting, he shoved her back. Faith's fingers tore out a clump of his thin, silky hair. She managed to snare his arm and they ended up in a wrestling match again. Faith tried to put some distance between her and him, hearing a ripping sound. He stumbled back then landed on the little thing passing as his ass. In his hand was the whole front of her shirt. As ludicrous as it was, Faith paused to look down at herself. Her breasts were bare to the breeze.

Her opponent was gone like a flash. She chased after him, her unrestrained flesh bobbling back and forth almost painfully. He went up the side of a dormitory just like a vampire might. Faith cursed and started climbing. This was never her best skill. The brick grated her bare nipples and when she got to the top, the brat kicked her in the face. Faith plummeted and nearly tore out her shoulder catching onto a sill. By the time she got back, the kid was in a panic. Obviously he hadn't thought she could mimic his moves or he wouldn't have cornered himself.

He dived off the building and was out in the parking lot before she recovered from her own jump. She was quite sure her head popped off when she landed. He caught hold of the passing shuttle bus and was gone before she could catch up. Faith wrapped her arms over her breasts and jogged off to find Spike. 

"Spike! Where the hell are you?"

"This way, pet!"

She found him staring into the manicured bushes. "Did you catch the crossbow guy?"

Spike turned showing three bolts in his torso. "He's handy with that thing. I'm just glad he was running too fast to aim."

Her eyebrows lifted. "Don't those hurt?"

"Like a bitch but I got distracted." He gestured at the bushes.

Faith stepped up to him and looked over the hedges. Two bodies were arranged there, one male, one female, each cut into segments and interlaced on the ground. The sight made her stomach roil. "Damn...think crossbow guy and the Boy Slayer did this? The kid had blood all over him."

"The guy ran right past it." Spike shrugged, giving her a long look. "Where's your shirt?"

"Most of it went with the kid. Give me your coat," she demanded.

Spike spread his arms in a Christ pose. "It's pinned to me."

Faith groaned and started pulling arrows out of him. 

"Nice view," he said and she slapped him.

"Eyes in, perv."

"So long as that rule doesn't go for all body parts."

She feinted with the arrow at his crotch. Spike danced back then surrendered his coat. 

"You might want to call Wolfram and Hart then the police," Spike said as she wrapped herself in his leathers.

"I'm in no hurry to deal with cops." Faith made a face.

"Me either. Call the boss and see what they want to do about this then we can call the police anonymously from a pay phone," Spike said.

"Better idea." Faith placed a call to the law firm. When she clicked off, she looked back at the horrible scene. "Fred and her team are on their way. They'll call the cops. They just want us to see if we can keep away other prying eyes until then. They want to scan for demon energy and all the stuff forensics can't do."

"Whatever."

"So, who was crossbow guy? You recognized him," Faith said, gauging Spike's expression.

He gave her a cautious appraisal. "I don't know him. He met with Eve earlier today and I'm sure no one is supposed to know that."

Faith nodded. "I think they're the ones who jumped Angel. I saw broken balloons where all the vampires were, more holy water bombs, I'll bet. The older guy had a backpack. He was probably carrying them."

"That's just devious, turning a kid's game into warfare," Spike said, disgust on his thin face.

"I like it." Faith rocked back on her heels. "Xander came up with the idea of using holy water squirt guns. I've been itching to try it."

"Just don't point it at me," Spike said, wagging a finger. He moved closer to the bushes, licking his lips at the blood smell. "You lost the kid."

"You lost the guy," she shot back.

"He did shoot me three times," Spike said in his defense.

"The kid ripped my shirt and kicked me off the top of the dormitory." Faith's eyes went back to the dead bodies. "He could have done this."

Spike nodded then mugged her for his cigarette pack, just enough to get another good look at the flesh she was trying to keep hidden. He lit up then passed the cigarettes to her. "Take your butts with you. Don't want to leave anything for the crime scene guys to find."

She looked at him curiously.

"You missed the part where I confessed to watching _CSI_."

"Yeah, Giles told me about your _Passions_ addiction, too." She grinned.

"Bloody wanker." Spike glanced around to see if any kids were heading their way. "For what it's worth, Faith, I think you're right. Those two were the ones who surprised Angel. I know there's something between Daniel, that's the guy with the crossbow, and Angel. I heard part of the conversation he had with Eve, and don't you dare repeat that to anyone. If Eve knows I have ways of overhearing her, I won't get the chance again."

"So, what do we do about it? If Angel knows them and isn't saying anything, then that means he doesn't want us looking into it," Faith said, puzzled.

"And you know he's gotta know who he's dealing with or he would have said 'I got jumped by a guy with a crossbow and a kid who can dust vamps like nobody's business'." Spike took a long drag. "He isn't going to thank us for meddling."

"Screw that. Angel's getting our help whether he likes it or not," Faith grumbled. "But I agree, this stays between us. Wes and the others might feel obligated to tell Angel and not go behind his back."

"That's what you get for being too honest." Spike grinned. "You and I got a little more room to play in the morals department."

She scowled at him. "So what now? Wes wants us to describe the guys we saw to a sketch artist."

"So we do it honestly and make sure Nancy boy is there so we can see his face. Angel's not good at keeping his feelings hidden, not any more," Spike said. "We'll know if he does recognize them and then we go from there."

Faith nodded yawning. "All I really want is a nap."

Fred and her team arrived quickly enough. Faith and Spike didn't wait around for them to do their thing. They met back up with Gunn and Wes and a young man with pretty green eyes that Wes introduced as Simeon. Faith had taken the time to change into a new shirt and returned Spike's punctured, bloody coat to its owner and in return had to bandage him up.

"Simeon will draw the two men you saw," Wes said.

"Don't you think Peaches should be here?" Spike said. "He oughtta be healed enough by now to at least sit up in a boardroom."

"We probably should let him rest," Wes said.

"You ain't a vampire, Winding-Pryce," Spike said. "You have no idea how hard it is just to lie around doing nothing."

"Wyndham," Wes corrected, his eyes hot. "You call him if you think you must."

Spike did while Faith started describing the boy she had seen. By the time Simeon had whipped two sketches into shape, Spike had annoyed Angel into attending and Gunn was back on the phone with Fred.

Gunn snapped his phone shut. "She found no signs of any real demon activity, maybe a ghost of it or something she's not sure. It's entirely possible that the two people you saw are the murderers."

Faith shrugged. "I'm not sure the kid is human. I mean, he moved like a Slayer and was as strong as one. He can't be all human, can he?"

"He could be half-demon, like Doyle...oh, right, you never met him," Angel said, looking a little sad at least as far as Faith could tell through his bandaged face. 

"Maybe. The guy I chased smelled human," Spike said. "But he sure as hell knew a vampire when he saw one. I have the arrow holes to prove it."

"The kid looked familiar somehow. I wish I knew why," Faith said. 

"Someone you shagged once?" Spike suggested, grinning wickedly.

"Spike," Angel snapped.

"What?" Spike's blue eyes narrow. "It's Faith, it's possible."

"Thanks a lot. And I wish I could say you were wrong." She shoved him. "He could have been a one night stand or something but with strength like that, you'd think I'd remember."

"Yes, that is most curious. I wish you would have been able to hold onto him. I would have liked to have seen him," Wes said, rubbing his stubbly chin.

"Well, this will have to do." Simeon turned over both pictures.

Faith watched Angel's face. The eye that wasn't covered by gauze went wide, not at the picture of the kid but at the one of the man Spike called Daniel. So, he did know the man and she could see Spike saw it, too. Angel passed the pictures to Gunn.

"Never seen them before," he said, sounding convincing. Faith still thought it was a lie.

"Me neither." Gunn turned them over to Wes who also shook his head. "We'll start a file on them but for now it stays in-house."

"And if you'll excuse me, I'm still kicked in the ass from the long flight not to mention getting kicked in the ass by the Boy Wonder. He was worse than the pack o' vamps," Faith said. "I need a nap."

"Go catch some sleep," Angel said. "We have things covered here."

"Thanks." Faith caught Spike's eye on the way out. She could tell he had something in mind and for now she was willing to let him play his hand. He knew Angel well, after all. Probably she and he knew Angel best. Spike, by sheer number of years spent with him and she by the Orpheus trip. Buffy would probably die to know what they did about Angel. All she had to do was be sure Spike wasn't playing her just so he could use whatever he knew to hurt Angel.

Heaven help him if he was. 


	4. Father's worry

__CHAPTER FOUR

Angel wanted to find Lilah's grave, dig her up and kill her all over again. When his son had blind-sided him the night before, Angel had been stunned. There was no signs of the boy Lilah had shown him in that house with the happy family. The boy who had attacked him showed no hints of the happy college kid; he wasn't living a good life; there hadn't been even a glimmer of sanity or even recognition that Angel was his father other than he was a vampire, nothing Angel had been promised was visible in Connor. Angel didn't now if Lilah was responsible for what his son had reverted to. For all he knew, Lilah had been dropped back into the hell from which she was dragged the moment Angel had signed on the dotted line. 

Angel knew he'd be better off talking to Eve. If anyone knew what had happened to Connor - had the spell broken? Had his mind? Had Wolfram and Hart lied? - it would be Eve. However, he didn't have the energy for a confrontation. He felt defeated and he knew he wouldn't get the truth out of Eve. He had always felt like a puppet on a string since the moment he had been granted his wish and now, he was beginning to realize just how true that was.

Angel pulled a book down off the library shelf. He kept the room dark but he wasn't sure why. True, the library was Wesley's domain but Angel was the head of the organization and he had every right to be there. Still, he felt like he was sneaking around where he didn't belong. "Resurrection spells," he whispered then opened the book.

He couldn't focus on the spells scrawling over the pages. All he saw was the feral look in his son's empty eyes, the lack of any higher reasoning. Connor reminded Angel of what he must have been like when he returned from hell, more animal than man. If not for Buffy, he might still be roaming the woods of Sunnydale hunting like a wolf.

He hadn't see much of Connor before the boy hit him in the face with a balloon full of holy water. He only survived the attack because he had fled, blinded after smashing his son into a wall. He didn't know what Connor was doing other than he had been hunting down some other vampires. Angel had heard the confrontation and had gone to investigate. The holy water hit him before he could even say anything but he was grateful in a perverse way. Connor was using a non-lethal way- to humans, at any rate- of culling vampires from the herd. Or maybe he had learned to scent the subtle differences between vampire and human or hear the lack of a heart beat. Angel didn't know.

And now Faith was suggesting Connor was cutting up college kids and draining their blood. He couldn't bear to think about it. The only saving grace was he didn't believe it for a moment. His son wouldn't do that and in the feral state Connor had been in, Angel doubted he had the capacity to commit the ritualistic, highly organized murders.

Worse, he hadn't known Daniel was back somehow from the grave, not until the picture Simeon had drawn from Spike's description. Angel had no doubt that it was Holtz and that Wolfram and Hart was responsible for him being alive once more. Only he didn't know what the firm had to gain by putting kidnapper and victim back together again. Was that what caused Connor to descend into whatever hell he was in now? Had Holtz done something to him or had he been brought back to try and control the boy? Angel didn't doubt that Connor had loved Holtz, despite the boy's plaintive accusations in the mall about Angel letting Holtz get him. Angel even felt pity for Daniel. He remembered how confused and afraid Darla had been when she was brought back. The same went for Buffy and even himself when he returned from hell. There was more mystery here than Angel felt up to dealing with.

The vampire stiffened as he caught a whiff of cigarettes. "Magical party favors," he whispered to the book knowing he wasn't likely to get rid of Spike quickly and he didn't want him prying into this. Spike would want to know why Angel was looking at resurrection spells. It was bad enough that Faith was having dreams about him. Angel knew he should be grateful that either Faith was that connected to him or that the Powers That Be's were in action trying to protect him but there was nothing they could do to help. He didn't need Spike poking around in his business, to top it off. Spike could be persistent and he was good at rooting out weaknesses and secrets and exploiting them. He didn't want to have Spike exposing anything until he could find a way to help his son.

He needed to look up ways to reverse Wolfram and Hart's spell and for his own sake, he wanted to know how Holtz had come back and why. Angel knew he could ask Wes and Giles for help, even if it meant confessing to tampering with all of his friends' minds. At this point, the anger he knew he'd face didn't matter. All that did was Wolfram and Hart had apparently reneged on their deal and his son was suffering, and his friends might, too, if he tried to make a break with the law firm.

"Shouldn't you be in bed, Peaches?" Spike sat on the desk and cast a glance at the book. "Surely party favors could wait until you're healed up."

"What do you want, Spike?" Angel couldn't keep the irritation out of his voice but was fairly confident that he was so regularly annoyed with Spike that he doubted the other vampire would give it a second thought.

"I think you know what's going on, Angel." Spike lifted his chin arrogantly.

Angel scowled. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You might be able to pull the wool over your friends' eyes but I've known you too long. You know who fucked you up." Spike's eyes narrowed.

Angel knew there'd be little he could say that would dissuade Dru's momentarily lapse of judgement, but he'd try. "I don't know what you think is going on, Spike, but it isn't. I got a face full of holy water. I nearly lost an eye and I took off. I didn't see who did it."

"Funny, you looked like you might have recognized the sketch of the boy, Angel, and I'm sure he's the one who did this to you. I saw him fight those vampires. He moved like Faith or Buffy." Spike snorted. "Or should I say like you and me? Only the kid's got a heartbeat so he's not another do-gooder vampire, like we needed another. That leaves us with all that power in someone Faith's ready to swear is not only nuts but is cutting up teenagers.

"He's not!" Angel clamped his jaw shut. Spike looked delighted. Angel knew he had made a mistake. "We can't say he killed those kids. Faith said the boy was like an animal. I wouldn't expect him to carefully arrange the scenes those kids were left in."

"There was nothing insane about the man with the kid," Spike said. "They're a team. He could be getting off an arranging those scenes after the kid kills them. The boy did have blood on him. And I know you recognized that picture of the man. You nearly shit your pit, Peaches."

"You're full of it." Angel knew that wouldn't put Spike off. He'd have to try harder to throw Spike off the trail. 

Spike leaned close. "Who's Daniel, Angel?"

Angel felt something catch inside of him like he still had a heart that could skip a beat. "Who?"

"I think you know who." Spike's voice was sibilant, soft like a snake's hiss.

"You think that's the man in the picture," Angel said, wondering where Spike had gotten the name and came up with the sad realization that Spike might know more about what was going on than he did.

"I'm positive of it." Spike grinned, reaching for his cigarettes.

Angel grabbed them, crushed them and handed them back. "No smoking in here. What makes you so sure?"

"I have my ways." Spike tossed himself off the desk and strutted around the library. "I've been going over in my head trying to remember any Daniels that would want to do you harm. I don't remember you siring anyone by that name but I'm sure I don't know half of the ones you raised. Still, I know this man isn't a vampire. He sure as hell knows what we are though. He's quick with that crossbow and he has some kind of control on the kid. I don't know what that's all about." Spike spun on heel and gave Angel a look. "Then I remembered you and Darla laughing about someone named Daniel, what you had done to him and some of the things he had done to you. He was some kind of Van Helsing." Spike's brow furrowed. "Of course Van Helsing came a century later." Spike waved that off. "Whatever. I remember you telling those tales over a nice bit of young blood or after a good ravishing and pillaging night but he was only human. He'd be bones long ago but I was thinking, what if he was like those bloody gypsies and decided to punish you? He could have trained his descendants and they trained theirs, handing the hatred down the generations along with the name."

"Nice little theory, Spike, but I have no idea what you're talking about." Angel felt cold. Spike was closer than he knew. "The Daniel you mean was someone Darla and I entertained ourselves with two hundred years ago. He's gone. His family is gone. We killed them all."

Spike shrugged. "Still, I know it's something. You know those two and I'm of half a mind to tell the others you're protecting a pair of murderers."

Angel had his hand around Spike's throat before he even knew he was doing it. He shoved Spike against the wall so hard, three book shelves cracked and spilled books with a deafening crash. "You have no idea what you're messing with, Spike. Just leave it alone."

Spike broke Angel's grip. He had his signature cocky smile on his face. "You just proved me right, Angel. Faith knows it, too. She's still having the dreams. She knows you're still in danger and she knows you know more than you're telling. It's only a matter of time until we figure it out."

"Leave it alone, Spike. And you can tell Faith to do the same." Angel's fists curled, wanting to shove them through Spike's smirking face.

"Can't do that, Peaches. They might kill more innocent kids. How will I ever get to play a part in that prophecy if I'm not a good enough guy to stop the slaughter of innocents?" Spike's smile went particularly oily but Angel refused to rise to the bait.

"You're wrong about this, Spike." Angel uncurled his fingers and buried them in his hair, regretting the move as they hit the burned and raw spots of his scalp. "I'll tell Faith she can stop worrying about me."

"Angel, you're the only man I know who could have the hook so deep in his belly and still not know that he's been caught. Are you going to wake up before they have you skinned and filleted and in the frying pan?" Spike looked serious for a moment. "Someone's out to kill you. There are people who'd miss you. Not me, mind, but I don't want to have to deal with their grief over you."

"This Daniel was here, wasn't he?" Angel asked, realizing that had to be how Spike had learned of him. 

Spike shrugged. "Actually, I'd miss you, too, Angel. My life would be a lot more boring without having you around to annoy."

Angel actually grinned briefly. "Why don't I doubt that?"

"He's going to come for you, Angel. If you're not worried about that, worry about the people who might accidently be in the way when it happens, like Fred or Faith," Spike said and sauntered toward the door.

Angel let him go. He wanted to ask what Spike knew but that's what the vampire wanted. Spike couldn't know all that much and he had already given Angel what he needed to know. Angel put the book back. Researching spells could wait. It was still night so he went outside and thought briefly about using his cell phone to call someone. What if they could listen in? He could go to The Next Dimension Over, Lorne's new Wolfram and Hart sponsored club but that was probably bugged, too, and Lorne would want to know why Angel wanted to use the land line. In the end he went to Anne's shelter and gave her a wad of twenties to pay for the call overseas and to buy her silence on the matter.

"Hello, Willow. I need to ask a big favor....thanks, I need you to do a background check on someone who works for Wolfram and Hart because I can't do it here. And if you can tell if she's transacting business outside of Wolfram and Hart, that would be good to know. " Angel listened to Willow bubble on for a few moments about something particularly exciting that had happened that day then she settled and he gave her Eve's name. He knew that was the place to start. He'd run through Wolfram and Hart's real estate dealings himself, just like he had when they were looking for Darla. Holtz would need a place to stay and he didn't have the means to get one himself. Now if he could only figure out what he'd do once he located Holtz and Connor.

* * * 

Holtz managed to coerce Steven back into the small homestead Eve had secured for them. Holtz may have been out of the world for a long time but he could see this was a bad neighborhood. The advantages were that it was a house and a little more isolated than an apartment so if Steven started crying in his sleep, he wouldn't attract attention. And in this neighborhood no one paid attention to screams.

Steven jumped on his creaky little bed, rocking back and forth. He held something to his nose. Holtz could only see that it was dark in color but whatever it was,6 the boy was fascinated by it. Holtz set down his weapons except for the taser he had been given to keep Steven under control. He sat on the bed and reached for whatever it was Steven had. "May I see it, son?"

Steven clutched it tighter giving him a fierce look. Holtz raised an eyebrow and Steven relented. Holtz saw it was part of a woman's shirt and bra. The woman who had joined the fight against the vampires had worn a deep purple shirt. This must be hers. He tossed it in the garbage can praying Steven hadn't hurt the girl. There didn't appear to be any blood on the shirt but there was a lot on Steven. He wished the boy would get off the bed. He'd have to strip the bedding as it was.

Steven mewed when Holtz tossed away his prize. He dropped off the bed into a squat. He rescued the cloth and put it to his nose again. Holtz stroked his hair. "Steven, that's very improper. Put it back in the garbage."

Steven shook his head and scampered just out of arms reach. Holtz sighed. He didn't believe Angel had done this to his son. He didn't know what had gone wrong. He had been so sure that Steven would avenge his death and kill the vampire. He never dreamt Steven would fail. Once the horrible disorientation and fear faded after he had been brought back, the sly woman, Eve, had come to him and told him they needed his help to bring Steven back to himself, that Angel had so damaged his son that they were desperate to help and felt someone close to the boy would comfort him and aid him. Holtz didn't know why he didn't believe her but he didn't. If anything, he felt he was working with the people who had fractured his adopted child. A better biblical name for her would be Jezebel. He knew better than to trust Eve and he knew she had plans for him and Steven that he couldn't guess at.

"Steven, let's get you clean, please. You're getting blood and dirt everywhere."

Steven looked up at him then went into the bathroom without a word. He did not drop the shirt piece. Holtz waited until he heard the shower going before turning his attention to remaking the bed and cleaning his weaponry, making sure it was all in working order. He didn't realize how much he had loved hearing his son's voice. Steven had never been a talker but now he seemed almost unable to form words. Occasionally he managed a few monosyllables but mostly he communicated with grunts, facial expressions and gestures. Holtz pulled out the taser and made sure it still had a full charge. He had only had to use it twice. Once when Steven was so agitated that he was throwing himself around the house, hurting himself and once more when he tried to stop the boy from chasing down more demons that Holtz felt he could handle in this state. He kept it close though, not trusting Steven's fragile hold on reality. He'd never survive if the boy turned on him.

He was tempted to find Angel and just tell him what had happened, provided he could do so before the vampire killed him. Of course, he thought, going into the kitchen, Angel had been willing to listen to him. That had been a surprise. He might just listen now since Holtz was clever enough to stalk Eve. He knew the woman worked, in theory, for Angel but he could easily see she was a traitor. He started frying some sausages for dinner. He wondered if he could approach the others that worked with the vampire. Holtz thought they would be even riskier especially after Justine had taken one of their own. He wondered about the blond vampire who had been accompanying the girl Steven had tussled with.

He had seen the vampire at Wolfram and Hart's but only just barely. The demon hadn't wanted to be seen. He didn't know why a girl who killed other vampires would be with one. It made no sense. Putting it out of mind, Holtz finished making dinner then drugged Steven's orange juice because it was the only way he could guarantee the boy would sleep and not leave the house when he himself had to rest and it made the boy more manageable.

"You look much better," he said as Steven reappeared, hair wet and his face scrubbed pink. 

The boy smiled and ate. It still took longer than Eve said it would for the drugs to work. Steven eventually tired and went to bed. Holtz tucked him in and kissed the boy's forehead. Steven smiled blearily and curled up with the shirt piece still in his hands.

"Can I have that now, son?"

"Smells good," the boy said, surprising Holtz with his clarity and with the implications of that statement. He feared what would happen if he took it away again.

"All right, son."

Holtz found Steven had neatly folded up his soiled clothes. He took them and removed his own, tossing them into the washer. They had almost captured the demon making young men kill other teens tonight but the demon had no substance and he didn't want Steven attacking the boys. He couldn't have him killing humans. Then that pack of vampires had struck, tearing them away from the prey they had been after for two weeks. He had no idea how to stop such a demon but vampires he knew how to handle. He would get Steven back after the demon controlling the boys tomorrow. He would ask Eve if she knew anything that might help stop the demon. She might even tell him if she did. But he wouldn't tell Eve about the blond vampire, not until he knew more. It was time for patience and careful observation. Now, if he could only do something to help Steven.


	5. Blitzkrieg

CHAPTER FIVE

"Explain again why you need to come with us?" Spike groaned as he and Faith patrolled another campus. He shot a dirty look at Lorne who was tagging along.

"You're trying to help Angel-cakes and it's the least I can do," Lorne said.

"We're not..." Faith trailed off. She shot an accusatory look at Spike. "Who said we're out here getting in Angel's business when he so obviously doesn't want us to?"

"If you have secrets to keep, don't be singing around an empath like me." Lorne grinned at her.

"Spike was singing?" Faith's face lit up. "And I missed it."

"It was a passable verison of the Sex Pistol's 'Lonely Boy." Lorne glanced over at Spike. "Oddly not appropriate from what I've heard around the water cooler. That aside, I want to help make sure no more kids die."

"Guess I can't argue with that," Spike grumbled.

Faith wondered what his problem was. He was acting like a jealous boyfriend then thought maybe that could be it. The night in Buffy's house she and he had almost gotten down to it. She knew he didn't love her or she him but that wasn't going to stop them. Maybe he wanted to give it another try and was pissed Lorne was there getting in the way of his moves. Faith had to admit she was curious. She and B had had a good talk when they were in Dublin looking for a newly made Slayer and B had confessed to the advantages of having a lover as strong as she was, not having to worry about hurting him. Faith got that. She wanted to know what it felt like not having to hold back.

She and Spike ranged out across the campus. It was lonelier than she expected. All the murdered teens had been making the news. The kids were probably scared. It was keeping some of them in but not all of them. Teenagers always did feel invincible. Faith understood that. Lorne was dogging her. She didn't know much about his ability to fight. She hadn't seen much of any real skill from Lorne back when she helped with Angelus. So long as he kept out of the way, she had no problems with him being around.

"You think something weird is going on with Angel?" She decided to test the waters. Maybe Lorne had some kind of insight.

"He seems a little more closed mouth than normal," Lorne said then frowned. "Which is harder than you might imagine."

"I'm guessing you haven't read him then."

Lorne shook his head. "Angel-hair doesn't like to sing and let me tell you, we're all grateful for that."

"He told me about the torturing of having to sing _Mandy _for you once." Faith grinned.

Lorne returned it. "You have no idea how torturous it was for the rest of us. So, what are we looking for exactly?"

"General signs of trouble," Faith said. "And the pair from Simeon's sketches. They should be easy to spot."

A shriek cut the night. Faith and Lorne froze.

"Or that's a good sign," she said, seeing Spike already taking off. "Don't wait for us, Spike. You're closer." Faith screamed that last bit.

She was surprised when Lorne seemed able to keep up with her as they raced across the complex. She went past an alleyway and almost didn't see the movement out of the corner of her eye. Something barreled out of the alley behind her. Lorne didn't even have time to cry out. The next thing she knew, Lorne's head went spinning through the air, hit ground and rolled into the rose bushes. 

Faith whirled, mentally cursing she hadn't brought a sword of her own since it was hard to be inconspicious with one. Behind her, standing over Lorne's body, his chest heaving, eyes wild, was the kid from the other night. He had a short curved sword and he was about to carve Lorne like a Thanksgiving turkey. The kid looked over at her, his lip curled.

"Demon!" He brought the sword back and Faith didn't know if he was going to use it on her or on what was left of Lorne.

"He was a good demon," she said, aiming a kick at his knee, hoping to cripple him quickly.

He danced back and Faith twisted, catching his sword arm. She smashed it several times into the building. The metal broke but his bones didn't. She didn't have time to contemplate that before his foot slammed into her groin. She might not have testicles to crush but it hurt none the less. She staggered back.

"Demon lover." 

"You have a limited vocabulary, you know that, kid?" Faith punched him in the face. "And for the record, I've never loved a demon yet."

He fell back, wiping at his bloodied lip. He charged her bare handed and knocked her back into the alley. Faith slipped in the fetid slick around the dumpster but caught herself before she landed on her butt in the filth. She caught his incoming fist and spun him into the wall. She pressed him there with one hand, working his gut with the other. 

Her eyes caught his for a moment and she was lost in the blue of them. There was something unexpectedly familiar about them, as if he and she had been locked into this opposition before and not just from the other night. Momentarily distracted, she didn't have time to move as his hand swept in and caught her in the throat. Faith gagged as her airway was cut off. For a blinding second she thought he had broken her neck. She fell back, struggling to breathe.

She stumbled for the opening of the alley. She needed to get to a place where she could maneuver. Where was Spike? Obviously elsewhere investigating te screams like she had told him to. What felt like fire burst all over Faith's head as the kid caught her long hair and nearly ripped her scalp off, hauling her back. Faith went with it and managed a scissors kick. When he went down she ran, still fighting for air.

He was on her before she knew it. She landed face down in the grass just a few feet from Lorne. She couldn't force words past her swollen throat, couldn't call for help. She tried to get the kid off her back. She managed to shove him aside, into the wall around the rose garden. His fist smashed into the cement border and shattered the blocks. Faith's eyes bulged, remembering being hit that hard before, Buffy, Angelus, the Beast; she didn't want to feel that kind of pain again.

She tried to get to her feet. The kid grabbed her ankle and twisted. Faith gasped, feeling something pop. He was on her like dervish, all fists and feet. He was landing blows so fast and furious she couldn't fend them off. The last thing she heard before darkness claimed her was the engine of a truck and someone shouting for Steven to stop and come. The kid's slight weight lifted off of her and then she felt nothing at all.

* * *

Spike didn't wait for Lorne or Faith. He knew he was closer to the source of the screams. He got there just in time to see a young man running from a group of other young men, a bunch of Goth Wannabe boys if he had to guess. He could see a body hanging from a tree by its feet. It looked like the boy screaming was intended to join the other victim. Higher in the trees was something that Spike wasn't sure but he could see through it like it was a ghost of a demon or something.

He got between the prey and the predators and knocked down the lead boy. The others paused momentarily. The prey teen kept running. Spike beckoned the others to bring it on. It was then that he saw someone getting out of a nearby truck, crossbow in hand. "Surprise, surprise, here's Daniel," Spike muttered as the predator teens scattered and regrouped by the victim hanging from the tree.

"You again," Daniel said, leveling the cross bow at Spike.

"I was thinking the same thing, mate." Spike charged him, hoping to make him shoot without aiming.

It worked. The bolt missed him and he was on the man before he could aim again but not before he loaded the weapon. He hit Daniel just as the man fired. Daniel went down and the arrow struck one of the predator teens in the chest. The boy squealed and fell. Something tore out of him, a match to the ghost-demon in the tree. 

"Damn, they're possessed," Spike said at the same time Daniel was saying he hadn't meant to kill the kid.

Daniel twisted in Spike's grasp, trying to get another bolt. Spike swatted the quiver away and cracked the bow.

"Naughty, naughty. Can't have you turning me into ashtray fillings."

"It would be the best use of you, vampire," Daniel shot back.

Spike back handed him, knocking him off his feet but Daniel surprised him by getting hold of his jacket, dragging the slighter man down with him. Spike didn't want to kill the man so he pulled his punch. Daniel spat the blood back in Spike's face and came up with a small crucifix. 

"What? You expect me to shy away with a Hollywood vampire hiss?" Spike laughed.

"No, I expect you to burn." 

Daniel rammed the cross down Spike's waistband. Spike shrieked, clawing at his zipper. Daniel pulled the taser he had for controlling Steven out of his jacket and hit Spike full in the chest with it. Spike toppled backwards, twitching. Daniel rolled to his feet, retrieved his bolt from the dead teenager and ran back to the truck. 

Spike heard him pull away but had no control over his body to stop him. He could feel the cross burning into his tenderest bits and tried to force his hands to move. He managed to get the cross out of his pants and just lay there for a moment panting, trying to focus on something besides the agony he was in.

Spike staggered up and surveyed the scene. There was still a victim hanging in the tree. The teen was still dead and the two ghost-demons were gone. So were the predatory teens. Odder still was Faith and Lorne had never shown up. Realizing that he hadn't seen Daniel's companion, the vampire-killing kid, Spike wondered if the kid had found Faith and Lorne.

Spike stumbled back the way he came. He broke into a hobbling run when he saw Faith lying in the grass. When he got to her side he saw how swollen her face was, the blood pooling around her mouth and heard how labored her breathing was. 

"Shit." He scooped her up and she didn't give any signs of coming around. He saw Lorne's headless body lying a few feet away and made a choice. Faith was still alive at least. He carried her to their car and satisfied she wasn't going to die then and there, ran back for Lorne. He hated to think how he was going to explain to Angel why his empath-seer had no head.

"Spike! Over here!" Lorne called.

Spike nearly dropped the body, letting out a string of expletives. Lorne's head was looking at him from the roses. "You aren't dead."

"Decapitation can't kill me. Put my head back where it belongs," Lorne demanded.

Spike set the body down and complied, feeling rather put out by it. He didn't like being startled and he wasn't sure what to make of heads being able to survive without a body. Lorne needed help to move once his head was back on so Spike hustled him back to the car. He didn't pay any mind to Lorne's bitching about the attack or the fire that seemed to be spreading from his groin all the way to his knees and up into his chest from the incredibly painful burn he had sustained. The only thing on Spike's mind was Faith's condition. She was a Slayer. He knew she was tough but she looked bad. He needed to get her some help and he only hoped Wolfram and Hart's infirmary was as good as Fred boasted it was.

* * *

By the time they had returned to their home, Holtz's heart rate had begun to return to normal. The vampire had gotten a hold of him. He was lucky that he still drew breath. If the demon had been paying more attention to what he was doing, Holtz knew he would be dead. Then there was what Steven had been doing. No, he couldn't think of that.

Holtz wished he knew if the vampire had anything to do with the young men who were viciously killing their peers. He had seen vampires do heinous things to amuse themselves but he had never seen them direct others to do violence. Perhaps it was mere coincidence that the vampire had been there but this was the second time he had seen the scrawny washed-out creature. One time too many to be coincidence. Either he was helping the young men or he had been drawn by their violence. It was just one more way this world made no sense to him. He hadn't expected this time to be so crazed, so alien to him when he had made his bargain with Sahjhan. He had come to regret that deal with the devil.

Steven darted inside their home even before Holtz stopped the truck. He had surprised his mentors at Wolfram and Hart with how quickly he had picked up this piece of seemingly prosaic magic, taming a metal monster and make it take you places. They assured him it was simply a machine, a tool like the ox carts and carriages he was familiar with but he wasn't sure he believed it. Light with the flick of a switch, flushable bowls of water that passed as chamber pots, boxes that made music or showed pictures at a push of a button, stoves that didn't require wood and flint, this was all magic and frightening but he did his best never to let that show, to adjust as quickly as he could. It was one of his skills.

Holtz followed his son - which is how he saw the boy - into their shabby dwelling. "Steven, please sit on the couch."

The boy looked at him with the same blank expression as the hound dogs he used to us to help distract vampires so he and his band could kill them. He did was he was told, just like those hounds. 

Holtz sat next to him and took Steven's hands, examining the bloody knuckles. There were bruises on the boy's wan face, something he wasn't used to seeing unless his son had gone up against the roughest of demons in the hell he had foolishly sentenced them to. "You are not to ever hurt a human being, son. You know this."

Steven pulled his hands back, tucking them up under his armpits, not looking at Holtz.

"Steven, look at me," Holtz demanded and the boy did out of the corner of his eyes, remaining just a tad defiant. He had always been so headstrong. There was no denying parentage. "You killed her. You had to have done so and it was needless."

Seeing his son shiver, hearing the pitiful mew that escapes his lips, Holtz regretted the sharpness of his tone but it was needed. Steven had lost his temper and now a girl was dead. Holtz flogged himself for letting her body lie there in the grass but she had sided with a demon; he had seem the carcass of the green-skinned thing she had been with tonight. She had been with the vampire the night before. The thought of Steven as a murderer made his stomach curdle. Holtz had killed humans in his time, when they stood in the way of Righteousness but he had always lamented the necessity. 

"Not human," Steven asserted, surprising Holtz. He had become so accustom to his son saying very little and to hear him say something that he had put some thought into came as a shock, gave him a glimmer of hope that the boy would totally recover his lost senses. "Moved like me."

Holtz tugged the end of his beard, debating that mentally. He had seen the girl fight. Steven had a point. Nothing human could be that fast but she had no other demonic aspect. It could be she was a vampire who just didn't like to wear her true face. Whatever she was, she had been strong, quick and utterly improper with her arms bared and wearing pants. Of course, the last two could describe most of the women he had seen since Sahjhan brought him into this time. It was another of those things that made no sense. "Was she a vampire?"

Steven shook his head. "Breathed...very warm."

Holtz thought back to the scrap of clothing Steven had taken for his souvenir collection and wondered about the comment. His son was a young man now, with all the same urges as any young boy whether he liked it or not. "Then I do not know what she might have been. We must err on the side of caution, Steven. We have a job to do and we can not afford to make mistakes. If she was not a demon then you have taken the life of well, perhaps not an innocent, but none the less it was not your right to end her life." Holtz felt like the worst kind of hypocrite saying that. His son's lips trembled, his eyes welling but then he looked away, getting control over his weaknesses. Holtz stood and patted him on the shoulder. "I know she was attacking you but you had her helpless, Steven. There was no need to kill her."

"Not what you taught me." Steven's chin lifted defiantly.

Holtz's lips thinned. "What I taught you applied to Quor-Toth. There were no innocent bystanders there, son. Here, it is different. I have explained that." And he had, until he thought he would tear out his hair. He had no way of telling how much Steven retained, only that it was far less than he was used to. His son was a bright boy, quick and inventive. He had been dragged back to life and awarded this shell of the young man he had known and nurtured. 

"Not dead," Steven said, his eyes getting his patented stubborn gleam. "Alive."

"But probably not for long, not with the beating you gave her," Holtz said, feeling both elated and horrified. He had not summoned help, thinking her dead but it was a busy campus; someone would assist a woman in need. "Try not to let it happen again. Go wash up for bed."

The eye roll Steven gave him was infinitely familiar. Holtz watched Steven go then sat down to tend his weapons once more. He didn't know what he had done to offend God but his sins must be deep and dark to have been expelled from his rest, for Wolfram and Hart to be allowed to do this to him. He was alone among his enemies. Everyone he had ever loved was long dead and gone and he had wanted was to finally join them. When he had Justine take his life, he had never dreamed Steven couldn't survive on his own, that something as terrible as this would befall him. He had trusted Steven could adapt to this world and thrive just as he had in Quor-Toth. Now, deeply saddened by this turn of events, frightened by the implications of his resurrection and alone in this world, except for his son, Holtz tried to find reasons to live.

Even the passion that had driven him had gone cold. Darla was dust. He had watched her stake herself, to his amazement. Angel had somehow lost his son. Holtz didn't believe Eve for a moment about Angel damaging Steven like this. He knew the vampire must be suffering but he didn't thrill to it as he once would have. His hatred had left him hollow. It had driven him across time and place but it had finally burned out. Eve's promise that he and Steven could avenge themselves on the vampire didn't reignite the flames of righteous vengeance. God was dead in this world, or at least inside of him. He would do what Eve asked, if he could, but only if she helped his son. 

Steven was the only thing he had left in the world, the only thing that matter. He would be just as happy to have his son back, whole and hale and take him far from this city, to a place where neither of them had to think of vampires again, a place where they could just be still and live a quiet life. Deep down, he knew this for the dream it was but it was all that kept him going. Hearing Steven finishing in the shower, Holtz set aside his weapons and went to take advantage of the warm water himself.


	6. Trials and tribulations

CHAPTER SIX

_I'm not dead_, Faith thought for the hundredth time since the beating. She had surfaced from the lake of unconsciousness several times, driven up by pain. She still hurt but not as much as before. Thank whatever for Slayer healing abilities.

For the first time, she stayed awake long enough to take stock of her surroundings. She wasn't in her bed or a hospital. The room was subtly masculine. She tried to get up but couldn't. Everything spun and she had been tucked in so tight she could barely move. She settled back down then tried to untuck the sheets. The care with which she had been put to bed was astonishing and the sheets had been turned into something just short of bondage. She glanced into the shadows, sensing she wasn't alone. Spike sat in a chair, watching her intently.

"Staring problem?" 

Spike shifted on the chair, looking uncomfortable. "No, jus' taking stock of your wounds—how you feeling?"

She tugged at the stubborn sheet then smiled weakly. "Like a hostage."

He levered himself up and slowly crossed over to her to help free her from the bedding. "Fair enough. Just featured you'd still be sore."

She was, more than she would ever admit to. She wasn't about to show that much weakness to anyone. "I'm good. Better than when you dragged me in here, and apparently still breathin' so, can't really complain."

"You were tossing about all night, you sleep okay?" He fell back into his chair.

Faith tried not to make a face. Had Spike been there watching her all night long? She wasn't sure if she should be creeped out by or grateful for his concern. He must have been retucking her in all night, trying to make her comfortable. "Not really, pain kind'a an intrusion on the whole sleep concept. What's with you and the twenty questions anyway?"

"Just concerned is all. You want me to get a doctor for you? They could give you something for pain," Spike said.

"No, I can handle it." Faith sat up, willing the room to steady.

"Was it the kid?" Spike asked.

"Oh, yeah. The fucker hits like a vampire, Spike." Faith canted her eyes over at him. "What the hell is he that he can do that?"

"I don't know."

"He killed Lorne before I even knew he was there. He had a real hard on for demon killing." Faith probed her swollen face.

"Lorne's alive," Spike broke in.

Faith's brow furrowed. "The kid cut his head off."

Spike tried to push an errant curl back into his slicked back doo. Faith wondered what he'd look like without a ton of gel in his hair. "Doesn't kill his kind."

Faith mulled that one. "Good to know. Where were you?"

He gave her a hurt look and Faith realized he thought she was criticizing him. "Breaking up the ritual murders."

"So, we were wrong. The kid didn't do it."

"I wouldn't say that." Spike shrugged. "Daniel was there with more kids who were doing the killing. I couldn't tell if he just happened by or if he's their Fagan."

"Huh?"

"Their leader." Spike smirked. "Never read '_Oliver Twist_'?"

"Reading ain't my thing," Faith said. "Did you stop them from killing more kids?"

"One victim got away. They already had one stung up and drained. Looks like the kids are possessed by a demon of some sort."

"That might explain how Steven, that's what Daniel called him, can hit like a fucking truck." Faith stretched slowly, feeling all the bruises. She decided to keep the fact the kid looked somehow familiar to herself. "Did you at least bring Daniel in?"

Spike frowned. "He got away."

"You're sure having trouble with one old man." Faith grinned wickedly.

"I have my reasons." Spike bristled.

"Let's hear them. I mean, you can see my excuse for letting Steven go again and I'll confess I'm embarrassed that I got my ass kicked by Scrawny Boy."

Spike snorted and stood up slowly. "I'll show you." He undid his zip and yanked down his pants revealing a cross mark blistered and burnt into him. The short arm of it had fried away a good portion of his pubic hair and the long arm had left half his penis looking like it had been tossed on the griddle. 

"Oooo, ouch." She winced.

"Spike! Is Faith here?" Angel's voice boomed as the vampire let himself in. "Fred said you didn't take her back to her room."

Angel came into the room and froze, seeing Spike exposing himself to Faith. His eyes widened a bit and a subtly amused expression tried to settle onto his face at the sight of the burn.

"This is thanks to your buddy Daniel." Spike gingerly rearranged himself then zipped up. "Oh, that's right, you don't know him."

"No but I'll send him a 'congratulations on a job well done' card." Angel tried not to laugh and failed.

"Oh, you're a riot." Spike flipped him a two-fingered salute. "How'd you like a cross shoved down your pants?"

"Angel, does the name Steven mean anything to you?" Faith interjected. Her head hurt too much to deal with them bickering. 

He sobered immensely. "No."

She didn't believed him. She was sure her eyes told him as much. "Why are you protecting him?"

"I'm not," Angel said, his voice soft, almost pained.

"Angel, you're losing your touch. I don't doubt you used to lie better. I'm with Spike. You know them and I want you to think about who you're hurting by protecting them. Me, Spike and Lorne damn near got killed out there." Faith snarled and Angel dropped his head. Faith curled her lip. "God, I sound like Buffy."

"Spike said the kid might not be involved with the killings," Angel said as if that mattered. "He's killing demons, not humans."

"Even so, Angel, how long before he makes a mistake and kills an innocent?" Faith asked, her eyes filled with dread. "You know how easy it is to do. I've been down that road and I wasn't anywhere near as fucked up nuts as that kid. He's a time bomb."

"Daniel had a taser and I'm not sure he's carrying that for any vampires he stumbles on to," Spike said. "Bet it'll drop that kid as fast as it dropped me."

Faith saw the pain in Angel's eyes at the idea. She wanted to pursue it but decided that Angel might not open up as long as Spike was around. Men didn't like to show each other weakness.

"Why were you looking for me, Angel?" Faith rubbed her sore neck.

"Fred brought this up from the infirmary." He held out an 'air-cast' ankle brace. "The doctor said that you had a badly sprained ankle. No knowing how fast your Slayer healing will repair that. This is supposed to help."

"I'm fine." She got up, took a step, felt the 'ground glass feeling' in the joint, winced and flopped down. She held out a hand to Angel and he dropped the brace in it. She put the cushioned plastic struts against her ankle and velcroed it on. She got up. "That feels better, thanks."

"No problem. Spike, Wesley would like to see you. He thinks he has found some likely candidates for the wraith-demons you saw last night."

"Guess that's my cue to hobble off," Spike said, heading for the door, walking like a cowboy.

"Poor guy. You almost feel sorry for him." Faith smiled weakly and Angel snorted. "Oh, come on, tell me you aren't in sympathy pain."

"Can't help it." He shrugged his uneven shoulders. "It's a natural male reaction."

"So you laugh at it and hurt at the same time?" Faith gave him a querulous look. "Dawn's right, you are all defective."

Angel's brow beetled. "Dawn said that?"

"She's spending too much time with Xander and Andrew. Those two could make any woman despair. I think she's seeing my method of 'use and lose before they drive you nuts' is a good plan."

"Another reason Buffy sent you across the pond." Angel smirked. "And as for the other reason, did you have another dream?" 

"What do you care? You don't seem to be interested in staying alive," Faith snapped.

Angel rubbed at his face, scratching off some of the dead flesh. "That's not true. We get trapped in the past sometimes."

"Keeping secrets, Angel?" Faith asked.

"Sometimes they're necessary, Faith. I'm not trying to put anyone in danger." Angel shoved his hands into his pockets. 

"Maybe not but you are and that's shit."

Angel looked away. "It's not open for debate, Faith. If you don't like it you can go back to England with the rest."

Faith stood there open-mouthed, watching him stalk off. She hobbled after him and grabbed him in the hall. He forced her back with an expression on his face she wished she could have elicited when she tried to make him kill her.

"Don't push it, Faith."

"Screw you, Angel. You'd best make a choice. Decide to help or I take what I know to the others."

"And what is it you think you know?" Angel's voice was so cold Faith nearly took a step back.

She gritted her teeth, giving him her own frigid look. "I know enough to get the others wondering and digging into it. So does Spike."

"Working with Spike now, Faith? I would have thought you'd lost the taste for that kind of dirt with the Mayor." His eyes went positively glacial.

For a moment Faith was speechless, acid churning in her stomach. She had always known Angel had a temper. She had sensed it, had seen glimmers of it. She hated it. Her hand hit his face before she could stop herself then she spun and walked away. "And to think I came here to save you. Spike's right, you aren't the Angel we knew. You're no one I want to know."

"Faith, wait! I'm sorry."

She didn't look back. She might stop if she did. She heard the sincerity in his voice but words sliced and a 'sorry' didn't always staunch the blood flow. She heard him call out another apology, but all she noticed was that part of his burnt skin had stuck to her hand and was dangling from her fingers. Shaking it free, she by-passed the elevator and stormed down the staircase.

Faith vented her rage in a dizzying run down the stairs. She ignored the flames in her ankle and the pain of her throat as she gulped air to fuel her mad dash. She just let the pent up energy and anger pound through her body and into the steps. Faith didn't stop at the level of Wes' office. She burned past it, kept running until she ran out of steps.

Faith stumbled for the fire door but was so light headed, vertigo screwed her straight into the ground. She curled up, back to the wall, feeling tears in her eyes. _Only babies cry_. She heard her mother's voice snap in her head but she wept anyway. 

Men never treated her fairly. She learned at an early age men could be monsters, that they took what they wanted and didn't care who they hurt. She could count on one hand the number of men who had ever been decent to her, who tried to help without asking for much in return.

Angel topped that list. She knew he had faults and weaknesses like any man but she was ill-prepared to have him be so cruel to her. She was just learning to open up and trust men and this was her reward.

Just once she'd like a good relationship with a guy. Faith knew she and Robin were doomed. They both knew it. It had already gone platonic. Robin wanted her to go into counseling for sexual addiction, wanted her to learn to love herself, telling her that three quarters of sexual addicts had been sexually abused as kids. He'd been principal long enough to see the signs in his kids. He could see them in her. She wouldn't; tell him he was right. She couldn't see herself twelve stepping it, crying about how she wanted to stop hurting herself and making embarrassing confessions to people she'd hurt. Maybe she needed to fall further before that was an option or maybe she really liked her life like this. She did appreciate that Robin cared enough to sacrifice what they might have had to try and help her be a better person. He already had.

And no matter what, she didn't want Angel for a lover. He was her best friend. He was the only one who cared enough to try and save her in her darkest times, the only one to come visit her in jail, the only one to believe she could be redeemed. He was her white knight and she wasn't ready for him to be as imperfect as he had just been.

Through the tears, Faith laughed. _White knight? Where had that girlie girl shit came from?_ She was grateful for it because it cut through the crying like a sissy crap. Faith wiped her face, waited a little while so her eyes wouldn't be so red and swollen then got up. The ankle Steven had tried to rearrange felt fat inside the air cast so Faith opted to ride up the elevator to Wes' office. Angel had joined Spike and Wes as Spike paged through a mound of arcane encyclopedias like mug shots. Between the 'No, no, I'm bored's,' Spike kept tossing looks over at Angel who was drumming a lighter on the table when he wasn't twirling it between his long fingers nervously.

Faith recognized it as Spike's and saw Wes had no ashtrays. _Isn't_ _it policy, no smoking? Probably since California is a leader in today's liberal fascism. Does that make any sense?_ Faith's brow beetled as she thought about it. _Can't smoke, eat meat and be persecuted unless you were on Atkins' diet to clog your arteries with animal fat, wear leather shoes and people try to destroy them, drive a Suvie and have some eco terrorist set it on fire. Liberal Greenies telling you how you're fucking up the earth and Conservatives telling you how you're going to hell. Where did free will go?_ Faith shook her head to clear it. That was prison thought, those deep musings to wile away the boring hours, ideas to engage cellmates in something just to be starting shit.

"How many wraith type demons are there?" Spike moaned.

"With our luck, thousands," Angel said, scratching at his healing holy water burns. Faith wished he wouldn't as a large part of his scalp was wiggling around grotesquely. Under his fingers, it pulled free and flapped down over his ear.

"Oh, that's so gross." Faith looked away.

"Sorry." Angel managed a sheepish look through the burns. "It's itchy."

"Can't you go to the infirmary and have the doctor clean that mess up?" Faith shuddered.

"It is disconcerting," Wes said.

"Sorry." Angel shoved his hands in his pocket to keep from scratching. "I just want to see if this comes to something. Did you see the demons, Faith?"

"All I saw were angry blue eyes and ninety pounds of fury," Faith replied. 

"Hey, I think we got something in here." Spike tapped a picture. "That looks like the bleeders I saw."

Wes took the book from Spike. "The Ays. They are a type of Dev."

"What?" Faith broke in.

"Immortal spirits, the Armenian were the first to document them. Some of the Dev are beneficial spirits."

"And these Ays guys aren't, right?" Faith leaned back on her chair. "Cut to it, Wes. You're as bad as Giles." 

Wes pursed his lips then dived back into it. "The Ays can possess humans and those possessed either go insane or can become an Ays themselves. I suppose being contained inside a human body keeps them safe from Fred's demonic sensors, which perform poorly with vampire detection as well."

"So, how do I kill them?" Faith asked.

"It's not as easy as that, Faith. It has no form until it binds with a human. The blood rituals the possessed are performing may be to make the possession permanent, or more likely is just a bunch of nonsense they've been told pleases the demon and have no idea they're in danger of being taken whole," Wes speculated, paging through another tome.

"Why would anyone want to have a demon in them?" Faith made a face. "I was creeped out about how the whole Slayer thing is some kind of twisted demonic energy."

"Buffy said Giles claimed being possessed was an incredible high," Angel put in.

"He'd know how?" Spike asked.

"When he was Faith's age, more or less, he and his buddies used to induce possession of a demon called Eyghon."

"Why?" Faith's dark eyes took over her face.

"Um." Angel looked like he wanted to blush. "For orgies."

Faith grinned and Spike made a noise like he had swallowed his tongue.

"I knew Giles had to have been something in his prime," Faith crowed.

"Ol' Rupert would have made a great vampire," Spike said.

"I wouldn't let him hear you say that," Wes said. "And in the mean time I'll try to find a way to banish the Ays. It would be prudent to try to bring in Daniel and Steven if at all possible. Someone had to introduce the boys to the idea of allowing a demon to use them. We know Daniel has been on hand twice at the murder scenes so he's the logical beginning point."

Faith could tell Angel didn't like that but he conceded Wes' point.

"I should get down to the infirmary," Angel said. "And have them help me get this dead skin off."

"No kidding because it's damn gruesome." Faith shivered.

"There are benefits of not being able to see yourself," Spike said. "In his case, that's always good what with the ugliness factor."

"I haven't forgotten how handsome I am," Angel returned. "Darla selected me for my face."

"I thought it was because you were stupid," Spike shot back.

"That, too, as she'd loudly tell the world when she was mad at me." Angel rolled his eyes. "Faith, maybe you should let the doctors look at you again."

Faith saw the echo of 'I'm sorry' in his eyes. "Sure whatever."

Spike joined her as she followed Angel out of Wes' office. Angel spotted Eve going into her office.

"I'll meet you at the infirmary later," he said and went into her office without knocking.

"Damn, he's acting weird," Faith said.

Spike pressed his fingers to her lips then hustled her over to a door. "Kala's off today." He punched the sequence into the number lock and the door opened.

"What are we doing?" Faith whispered.

"We can hear what they're saying from here," Spike said, stretching out on the couch.

Faith had to get closer to the wall but she distinctly hear Angel say, "What in the hell is going on, Eve? This was never part of the deal."

"Are you sure? Lilah said you were in such a hurry you barely looked at the contract."

"I looked at it enough to know I didn't agree to resurrecting the dead or snapping the minds of teenagers."

"Ask what you really want to know, Angel. Is your precious boy murdering teenagers and drinking their blood?"

"One would assume any of Angel's boys would be doing that," Faith murmured.

"I'm not asking, Eve, because I know Connor isn't doing this," Angel said.

"Are you so sure?"

"Positive."

"Who's Connor?" Faith whispered to Spike who shrugged.

"How did you do it? Did you reverse the spell as soon as I was granted one visitation? Did you take the time I spent in Sunnydale to yank him back here and do whatever it is you did to him?"

"Angel, even if we did do anything to him, what makes you think that we'd tell you?" Faith could hear the superior purr in Eve's voice. Faith knew that was all the wrong tone of voice to take and she could tell Spike knew it, too. She heard Eve making a gagging noise. 

"Because I'll crush your windpipe then tear this place apart to find out what I want to know if you don't. That's the good thing about Wolfram and Hart. There's always a paper trail."

Faith heard Eve gurgling. She jumped up, her muscles twinging but before Faith could get to the door, Spike yanked her down on the couch with him. He was as lean and hard as she remembered him the last time they had been this close.

"He'll kill her if we don't stop him," Faith protested.

Spike shook his head. "No, he won't and no big loss if he does. We've done a little killing of staff that broke the rules."

Faith's mouth dropped. Had it been human staff? Demonic? Did she want to know? Spike put his fingers over her lips again. Faith heard Eve take a deep gasp. Angel must have let her go. "Tell me or do you want to chance you can call security before I can kill you?"

"Nothing was done to him here," Eve rasped out. "Nothing you do to me will change that."

"Only Wolfram and Hart would drag a psychotic kidnaper back from the grave and put him back in charge of his victim."

"Daniel has been reunited with his son, Angel." The taunt had returned to Eve's voice. 

"Connor was never Holtz's son," Angel's voice was thick with rage.

"For all but one year of the boy's life, Holtz was his sole provider and foster father. Whether you like it or not, there's a bond there and Daniel is the best person to look over him."

Faith heard the snarl and knew Angel had to be in vamp face.

"If I find you had anything to do with this, Eve, they _will_ find your body and you'll be appalled at what's been done to it as an example to others as to what happens to those who betray me."

"He sounds serious," Faith said, her lips at Spike's ear. 

"He is."

Faith listened to the door slam open and Angel's heavy footsteps up the hall. She started to get up but Spike held her firm. He shook his head and she realized he had a point. If she went after him now Angel would know she had been spying on him. They waited until the hall was quite and there were no signs Eve might come out before they left Kala's office. His hand on her elbow, Spike led her to the stairwell.

"Now what?" Faith asked.

"We hope Peaches is right." Spike ran a hand up her arm.

"How so?"

"That there's a paper trail. If there is, it'll be in one of two places, Eve's office or the lab. I'll take the lab," Spike said.

"Great, leave me with the bitch." Faith frowned.

"I visit Fred a lot. No one will think twice about me being there. You have no reason to be in the lab and you don't know your way around it," Spike said.

"You've convinced me."

"Good. Go to the infirmary first or Angel will wonder why you didn't."

Faith nodded. Spike caught her chin and tipped her head up. She had never realized before how short he was, barely bigger than her. In the bad light of the stairwell, she noticed how pretty his eyes were. She could see why B had fallen for his puppy-dog eyes. He shocked her by kissing her forehead. 

"I'm glad you're okay...more or less," he said.

"Hey, at least no one burned off my naughty parts." She grinned.

"Lucky girl. I'll head for the lab. Meet me back at my room when you've done what you need to," Spike said.

"'Kay, why did you take me to your room in the first place?"

"My bed is nicer, bigger, better for you than that hard-ass thing in your visiting suite. Feather-tic mattress cover, king-sized, silk sheets," Spike said.

"No delicate doilies here." Faith smirked.

Spike gave her the two-fingered salute and headed off. Faith went for the infirmary, hating that she was right about Angel knowing what was going on and keeping her in the dark. She was hating just about everything right now, except maybe for Spike and that was so wrong.


	7. The Confessional

CHAPTER SEVEN

Spike offered Faith another Tetley's Ale and a cigarette. She seemed numb as she took them. He didn't blame her. He was feeling numb himself. There had been a bigger cache of stuff than either of them expected when they went on their respective raids. Spike had found files on a computer - Red's lessons had taken root in him - detailing medical records on one Steven Franklin Thomas Holtz and another on Daniel Holtz. The files had come from Wolfram and Hart's New York City branch, so Eve hadn't quite lied about her involvement. 

Daniel seemed to be a very ordinary man, albeit one who had been dragged back from the dead. The same could not be said of Steven. Spike knew he wasn't an idiot but he didn't have the education to really understand what the notes said. He didn't have the science background and he couldn't ask Fred without tipping his hand. Still, it was obvious enough Steven wasn't exactly human.

Faith's discovery had been more profound. Files on both of the men, Steven's was cross-referenced to a Connor Angel - and loads of videos tapes. They skipped the files and went straight to video, working through them and a six pack of Tetley's simultaneously. There were no sounds in the room except for the subtle sucking noises on the mouth of the bottles and the crinkling sound of cigarettes going to ash. 

It was the second time through for all the tapes. Some had sound. This one didn't. All were obviously taken in secret. Spike had seen ones of what looked like a very pregnant Darla except Spike knew that was impossible. Still, he had seen it. Faith revealed some of her Orpheus knowledge and told him Angel had given it to Darla some time after he had set her and Dru on fire. He told her Angel was always kinky that way. They watched as Daniel tore up men inside a place Faith called the Hyperion Hotel, Angel's last place of residence. There was no doubt this was the man they had come across in the parks. Spike counted himself lucky as hell that he wasn't fitting into an ashtray just about now.

Even more perplexing were ones of Angel cooing to a baby, singing lullabies and otherwise rampaging through the hotel like he had been given a cocktail of estrogen and stupid pills. Spike was embarrassed for him and from Faith's expression she felt the same. The embarrassment mixed with confusion and pity. Spike knew they were seeing the impossible then he remembered vampires waiting for their messiah, some dolts worshiping the great potentate Ul-Thar - fuck, if some vampires couldn't be totally pretentious prats - and here it was, a vampire baby. Trust Peaches to be the one to pull off the miracle. Then the baby disappeared from the videos and the boy that kicked the shit out of Faith appeared. The sound in these tapes were wonky as if made by something other than taping equipment if that made sense. It did to Spike since he heard Lorne on tape discovering the bugs via his enhanced senses. Wolfram and Hart had probably switched to magic or something. The last videos were of the boy and Angel with a dark-skinned woman on newscasts then a newscast of the boy trying to kill a mall full of people. Angel had been crying. Spike didn't want to see that. He didn't even want to use it against Angel because he could see the real emotion there, the heart felt pain. He understood that, had cried similar tears.

They were rewatching the strange-sounding tape, the one where the boy was kicking Angel's ass all over the hotel while adding some good kicks to Gunn and some guy Spike didn't know. He was shocked at Fred cowering in a corner with Lorne and Cordelia who was guarding them and acting like she knew the first thing about fighting. Fred had said Cordelia was good at it. Spike had his doubts. Spike could keep a copy of this just to watch Angel getting the crap kicked out of him like he so richly deserved but he was just as glad the kid had lost the stake launcher by the time he had come across him. Faith seemed to like the dirty leather look which made him wonder about her fantasies.

Both of them jumped off the couch when the door slammed open so hard, Spike thought it had to have been splintered off its hinges. Angel stood there, wild eyed. "Faith, care to explain to me why Eve's threatening to call the cops and have you arrested for theft?" He stalked into the room. "I know I can keep her from pressing...." His mouth stopped working as he saw the video tape.

"Want to tell us a few more lies about how you don't know him?" Faith asked, stabbing a hand at the tv. After a long pause she looked at him concerned. "Angel?" 

"Where...Eve had all of this?" Angel sounded broken.

"This, and those files and the files Spike found in the lab. Angel, who is this boy? I know what the tapes said he was." Faith got up. "I thought he looked familiar while he was kicking my ass but I can't place him. I know what it looks like on the tapes but that's not possible. Then I poke around my own brain at all the stuff Orpheus left there and realize there are huge holes."

"I didn't know they had this." Angel's shoulders slumped.

"You didn't answer the lady's questions," Spike said.

Angel bristled. "I can't talk about it."

"Enough of the bullshit, Angel," Faith snapped.

The tune of "_That's an Irish Lullaby_" interrupted and Spike immediately regretted having programed that in as a joke, especially after hearing Angel trying to warble a _Too-la-roo-ra-loo-ra_ to the infant on the videos. Angel pulled out his phone, staring at it as if he didn't know what it was. He looked at Faith then answered it. 

"Yes, Willow?" Spike watched Angel get sadder and sadder as Willow talked. "Thank you, Willow. I owe you."

Faith grabbed the phone before Angel could hang up. "Will, it's Faith. Yeah...not going so good actually. Is Buffy there? Put her on, thanks....Hey, B, gotta question for you. Is it normal for Angel to keep really big secrets from you and get all mad if you try to figure it out even though it's super important that you know...when he's acting all protective and thinks he's doing it for you own good? Yeah, thought so. Yeah, he's doing it now...no, I doubt kicking his ass will help but it might make me feel better," Faith said and Spike seconded it. He didn't miss the wounded look on Angel's face. "I gotta jet, B. Things are finally kicking loose here...Wes emailed you what? I didn't get my ass kicked." Faith looked irritated. "I got a little knocked around, nothing new for a Slayer, right? Oh, did he tell you what else happened....just stuff about me? Okay, guess who got a cross burned into his skin flute...you got it in one." Faith laughed.

"Bloody hell!" Spike muttered.

"Yeah, I know there really wasn't any other choice. Angel wouldn't have his out where it could be branded." Faith grinned.

"I resent that both of you!" Spike yelled loud enough to be heard across the Atlantic then mumbled, "Bints."

"I heard that, Spike," Faith said. "Okay, I'll let them know." Faith hung up and handed the phone back. "Buffy said hi and that if you don't stop acting like an overprotective asshole, I'm allowed, no, encouraged, to kick your ass."

"I don't think she called me an asshole," Angel said, softly.

Faith tossed her hair. "Close enough."

"And you didn't let me finish. I can't talk about it here." He gestured at the tv. "They're good at spying. We need to get this stuff someplace safe after I get the chance to read through it all. And we need to get someplace where we can't be easily overheard. Then I'll tell you everything."

"Fair enough," she replied.

Spike helped to gather it all up and they went underground since it was still daylight. Angel led them to The Next Dimension Over. Lorne wasn't in yet since he had very limited hours during which he did his thing. Spike knew the demon was still at work at the firm at this hour but his club was packed and noisy as hell. It was just what Angel obviously wanted.

"What did Red tell you?" Spike asked after he ordered a Type O Negative with a whiskey chaser.

"That Eve's been contracting out to the New York branch." Angel shook one of the files. "Doing this. She's the one who brought Holtz back from the dead. I don't know how or when she did it or what happened to Connor but I'm betting you two do."

Faith nodded. "Once it was made clear to you any more attempts to see him would result in breach of contract and you, like a giant ass, believed them, they took him to New York. I don't know what they did to him though."

"Experimented," Spike offered. "I don't understand half of what they did but I wasn't about to trust Fred, at least not yet. Wolfram and Hart's people did this to him...or maybe you did, Angel. He didn't look wrapped too tight in that video of the mall. We all know how good you drive people barmy, just look at Dru."

Angel wagged his head. "Holtz did this to him...I helped probably without meaning to. Cordelia helped. Jasmine...he didn't have a chance. Holtz made sure he only saw in black and white."

"And there's too much grey in this world," Spike said.

"But is it what it looked like? Is what we heard real?" Faith asked. "Is he your..." She trailed off as the waitress came over with two blood drinks, Spike's shot and a Dirty Orgasm for Faith. Spike made a face at the rather curdled-looking thing of orange liquor, Galliano and Bailey's Irish Cream. He had her pegged as a beer girl. This is what happened when you had drink menus that were like mini-phone books.

"He is," Angel said as the waitress moved on. 

"How is that possible?" Spike asked.

"The usual way." Angel shrugged. "This isn't supposed to happen."

"Then how did it?" Faith asked.

"When Wolfram and Hart brought her back from the dead, she was human but dying from a disease. I fought to save her life but it didn't work. The life I earned was given to us in the form of an impossible baby, someone who was prophesied to come," Angel took a sip of his blood. 

"And you gave Prophecy Boy to Evil Incorporated?" Faith kicked him under the table.

Angel looked wounded. "It wasn't that simple."

Spike listened as Angel explained it all. He thought Faith was going to chew through the table when Angel told her she had once known the boy but he had erased Connor from her memory; that or give Angel a holy water enema. Spike would hold him down for that. 

"You fucked with my brain?" Her hand convulsed on her drink, shards of glass cutting her.

Spike reached for her hand, pulling out the slivers.

"I didn't have a choice. You saw that, Faith. You think I wanted this? You think I wanted it to go this way, to hurt everyone I know just to save him?" Angel's good eye was wet with restrained tears and the burned one looked even worse. 

"It was wrong." She slammed her uninjured hand on the table, sloshing booze and blood.

"I know. And now I'm trying to figure out what to do. I know he's not killing those kids in the park, Faith. I know it here." Angel tapped his chest. "But this doesn't help. I don't understand everything they did to him that turned him this insane. Even when he was melting down in the mall, he was at least lucid...too lucid. Suicidal, hating himself and me and all the bad things in this world. He just couldn't grasp the shades of grey. He knew I loved him and he was starting to love me, I think, just a little. Now I doubt he even recognizes me. I'm just a vampire to him.

"Loving you screwed him up worse," Spike said and Angel looked at him. "What? Think I don't know how that is. You and I both do."

"Buffy," Faith said.

Spike nodded. "It's why we both left. Bodies and sex, that's okay. Love screws you up."

"Only Connor wasn't equipped to handle it, thanks to Holtz. His whole life was nothing but a lie as he saw it. He told me you couldn't be saved by a lie. I didn't listen," Angel said.

"Did you find spells to reverse this?" Spike asked. "That's why you were really in the library, right? Not some bloody nonsense about magical party favors."

"I knew you'd figure that much out." Angel ran a hand through his hair. "I think it can be done. I'll need Willow and Giles and probably Wes but once this comes to light, I'm not sure anyone will want to help."

"They'll help," Spike said. "If nothing else, they're do-gooders. They'll help the kid, if not you."

"And I say the plan doesn't change," Faith said. "We bring Connor and Holtz in. If they're not behind the demons possessing the kids and slaughtering half the college brats in town, at least you'll have them and can help Connor. And if they are...."

"Faith, you're in no condition to fight Connor," Angel interjected.

"Hey, you said I've beaten him in the past." Faith got her back up. "Just because he surprised me last night..."

"You're his equal, there's no doubt of that," Angel said quickly. "But you're still recovering and now you're drunk."

"He's got you there," Spike said. "But Peaches hasn't seen the tranquilizer gun Fred has cooked up. We should be able to drop the kid without having to fight him. We're all going out tonight with them."

Angel's melancholic look returned. "I'll help."

"What about the guy who fucked him up?" Faith asked.

"Don't hurt him. I've already done that enough," Angel said, the sorrow in his voice could have been bottled and sold to inspire suicides and dark poetry. "Bring him in if you can. If we capture Connor, Holtz will come to us on his own. I can almost guarantee it."

"And Eve?" Faith asked.

"She lives...until this is over," Angel growled. "After that I make no promises."

"Angel, you can't just kill her." Spike saw the horror on Faith's face as she said that. "Isn't that what your soul is supposed to stop?"

"I stop me because of the soul, Faith. It's a choice. I've chosen to ignore that soul before when I let Darla and Dru eat most of Wolfram and Hart's top players. Eve hurt my son. Don't think I'll think twice about hurting her," Angel said.

"The others might not agree, Peaches, but I'm with you," Spike said, seeing very little surprise in his grandsire's eyes. "Some people get what they deserve and I don't need to hear arguments about who are we to decide."

Angel nodded. "Cordelia once told me to kill Holtz for what he did. Fred and Gunn took Connor away so I could do just that."

"We got past Willow killing her lover's murderer and I know what Giles did to stop Glory." Spike put a comforting hand on Faith's shoulder. "I think they'll understand."

"I don't like it," Faith said. "But I'm not going to stop you, Angel, because I trust you and your judgement. Maybe that's dumb but I do."

"And I appreciate it. I wish I could have told you earlier, Faith, about all of this but I was hoping it could be fixed, that I could give Connor back the life I bargained for. I can't and I know that now." Angel got up. "Let's get back to the lab. We have some hunting to do."


	8. Capture

CHAPTER EIGHT

Faith rubbed her eyes. Maybe Angel had a point. She had gone out on this mission half-lit but there was no way of staying at home. She wanted to help find Connor. Only she and Spike knew the kid's importance to Angel. He didn't want to tell anyone else yet so she wanted to be the one to find him and bring him in as gently as she could.

Wes had called her on patrol to tell her two more victims had been found. No signs of Daniel, Connor or the Ays demons. She had headed over to where the bodies had been found but she didn't have any more success in finding Connor there than she and Spike had had earlier. The sun was nearly up and Spike and Angel had already called it a day. She was sober again and ready to go home. That's when she ran across him behind one of the college bars digging in the dumpster.

"Steven," she called, remembering that seemed to be the name he was answering to. "Would your father like you eating out of the trash?"

Connor's head snapped up, his nostrils flaring. His eyes slotted as his lips skinned back. He jumped off the garbage bin. "Demon lover."

"Awww, you remembered," Faith said as he charged her and then she shot him twice.

Connor kept up his charge. She danced back, not sure if three doses was safe. He collapsed just as he grabbed hold of her. He slid down her body, puddling at her feet. It was somewhere between comic, seductive and pathetic. She squatted down then glanced at the sky. The sun was up. No calling Spike or Angel for help. She figured she could call Wes or Gunn but why bother? Surely she could lug him back to the car on her own. If she had to wait, someone was bound to spot them and she didn't want to try to explain to the cops why she was kidnaping a teenager. 

She hefted him up in a fireman's carry and started for the car. "You have the boniest damn hips, kid," she said and he couldn't complain. Faith found she liked silence in a man. Spike, for example, was always bitching like a woman. It was irritating but without it, would he be Spike? Maybe she should tranq him and find out.

Faith got Connor to the car without being spotted. She dumped him unceremoniously into the trunk. She traced the bow of his cupid lips with a finger as she fought to place him in her memory. There just weren't any Connor shaped holes in it. "Damn you, Angel. Sorry, kid, I can't risk you waking up and I don't need anyone spotting you snoozing in the back seat, looks suspicious, you know."

There were no complaints as she shut the trunk. She could get used to the silent type. There was something to be said for unconscious men. Faith slid behind the wheel, got started toward the firm and place a call. "Angel, I got him...he's fine. I shot his ass full of tranqs and he almost didn't go down...no, no signs of Holtz. I'm thinking Connor slipped his leash since he was eating at Chez Dumpster. Either that or Holtz was elsewhere on campus and there was just something too good to resist in the trash. I'd rather not think about it. You got a holding cell for him?...Okay, see you there."

Angel was waiting for her in the garage with the whole crew by the time she arrived. Spike and Fred had a gurney between them and Gunn and Wes had tranq guns at the ready just in case. She popped the trunk and jumped back, waiting for an explosion that didn't come. Connor was still sleeping peacefully. She and Angel lifted him out and put him on the gurney. 

Fred started strapping him down. "Was he any trouble?"

"The tranqs worked, took two. I almost thought I'd need three," Faith said as they started wheeling him off.

"Where did you find him?" Wes asked.

"Not too far from where the bodies were found. He's pretty dirty but he has no blood on him," Faith replied. "I don't think he's our campus killer."

"You could be right," Wes conceded. "However, he did attack you, Faith. He represents an unknown danger that we need to assess."

"I just hope he doesn't bring charges against me for kidnaping," she joked. "Angel, you do have that holding cell, right?"

"We brought over Angelus' cage from the Hyperion," Fred broke in. "If it could hold Angelus, it should be adequate to hold this boy."

"Provided he doesn't slip through the bars," Spike said. "There's not much to him."

"Nah, he's a lightweight," Faith said, ignoring Angel's evil eye."

"We have one of the doctors waiting to examine him," Fred said.

"I want him to be made as comfortable as possible in the holding cell," Angel said. "As far as we know he's innocent of any killings and he appears troubled...needs our help."

"We don't know who he is yet," Gunn said, "But we're working on it."

Faith saw Angel nod his head, distractedly. As they entered the room with Angelus' cage Faith saw the doctor who worked on her the night along with Knox, setting up equipment. Knox's eyes widened.

"Oh, this is wrong," Knox said, gesturing at Connor. "That's Project 229. He's never supposed to be brought here, Eve's orders."

Faith caught Angel's arm before he could launch himself at Knox. She could see it coming. Even Knox seemed to sense something was wrong. Angel cast a glance down at the fingers digging into his arm as if he couldn't quite understand why they were there.

"What are you talking about, Knoxie?" Fred seemed perplexed. "I don't know anything about a Project 229."

Knox took a step back, nervously chewing on his bottom lip. Faith realized he had spoken without thinking. Fred obviously wasn't supposed to know about the project. 

"Knox, Fred asked a question," Gunn snapped, irritated by the hesitation.

"It's one of the outsourced projects. Eve said you had signed off on it, Fred, and were leaving it in my hands." Knox tried to rally some officiousness. 

"What did you do to the boy?" Angel growled as the doctor began a cursory exam of Connor.

Knox tucked his chin down, giving Angel an incredulous look. "Kid? That's not a kid. He's a demon."

"He doesn't look much like a demon," Fred said dubiously.

"Neither do Spike or Mr. Angel," Knox countered. "Trust me, he's a demon. Nothing human heals like he does. I know. I've seen the medical reports."

"I think you need to tell us everything about Project 229," Angel said, his voice too calm and still. It made Faith's skin crawl.

"I think we should get him into the cage," the doctor said. "He looks fine, no troubles breathing despite the tranquilizers but he seems to be coming around. I'll get him some scrubs. We should take all his clothing to forensics. He is one of the suspects in the ritual murders, yes?"

"Yes," Wesley said. "We should probably help with the clothes."

"Spike, give me a hand," Faith said. "Knox, I think Angel's waiting for an answer."

"But you already know about the project, sir. I've given all the reports to Eve. She said she was reporting directly to you on this," Knox protested, increasing agitation showing in his eyes.

"Pretend that she hasn't." Angel walked toward him until Knox was forced into a chair, looking up at him submissively.

"Man, why do I get stuck with stripping a kid?" Spike whined before Knox could start.

"Because I said so." Faith shoved him into the cage. 

"Fine but you take the tail end. You're used to getting boys out of their pants," Spike said and Faith punched him hard enough to knock him into the cage. "Oww, that hurt." Spike rubbed his shoulder as Faith started unstrapping Connor from the Gurney and levered him onto the cot inside the cage.

"Do you mind, Spike?" Angel grated then looked back at Knox.

"Project 229 concerns demon 229, him." Knox pointed into the cage where Faith and Spike were stripping the clothes off of Connor and handing them to Fred to put into evidence bags. "He's a demon that Eve claimed had a role in some prophecy. Wolfram and Hart wanted to know if there were things about him that could be used. I mean, there are some demons that make powerful venoms that can be rendered into medicines and others secrete substances that can be sold at a great profit. They wanted to know if there were ways of tapping into his healing abilities and strength so the doctors in New York did extensive experimentation and unfortunately couldn't find anything that could be used. Demon 229 seems to be unique as far as we can tell. It would help if we knew which dimension he was from. Eve said she thought it was Quor-Toth but since there are no dimensional openings to there, that seemed unlikely."

"What kind of medical experimentation?" Angel made a fist, his knuckles popping ominously. Faith felt an uncomfortable shiver up her spine at his cold tone.

Knox swallowed hard, eyeing that fist. "Anything you can think of. Every major organ system was tested, DNA work was done, his reactions to drugs, his strength was measured, his healing abilities pushed to their limits."

"Knox, it sounds like you and Eve turned him over to Dr. Mengele," Fred said, wrapping her arms around herself.

"He's not a human being, Fred. I would have thought that neutralizing a demon would sit well with the new paradigm here," Knox said, looking offended.

"I do have the reports. Fred, I'd like you to look them over, you and Wesley, and tell me what the doctors did to him," Angel said, "And Knox, he's not a demon, not entirely. He's mostly human, more human than Spike or me." 

Faith watched Knox shrivel either from the arctic blast rolling off Angel or because it was finally sinking in he had been a dupe and had been hurting a kid.

"Angel, how do you know that?" Wesley asked.

"Take my word for it. It's the reason Eve circumvented Fred and the laboratory here. She knew I'd stop her if I knew about this," Angel said and Knox squirmed in his seat.

"Bloody hell, look at his chest. This kid is as delicate as a bird," Spike said, tugging the blue scrub top the doctor offered down over Connor's shoulders.

"He's wiry," Angel shot back. Faith rolled her eyes at his defensiveness. 

"I'm wiry, Peaches," Spike said. "This kid is a piece of fragile spun glass."

"Spike, trust me, there's nothing fragile about him," Faith said, tying the scrub pants on over his narrow hips. Connor moaned a bit as she did. "Shit, he's waking up."

"Faith, Spike, get out of the cage," Angel said. "Especially you, Spike. He doesn't like vampires."

Spike grinned. "Awww, granddaddy's worried about me."

Angel's eyes narrowed. "Faith, lock Spike inside."

She rolled her eyes again and propelled Spike out. Wes locked the door behind them.

Gunn waggled his cell phone at Angel. "Just called the office. Eve's taken the day off and I've been called up for a meeting with the Senior Partners. I can't exactly say no."

"Go." Angel waved him on. "Looks like Eve's letting you take the heat for this alone, Knox"

He looked up at Angel, trying to look tough but only managing to look ready to wet his pants. "I was told he was a demon. I didn't do anything to him myself, just filed the paperwork." Knox's eyes begged Fred for a rescue. "I was only following orders."

"I'm pretty sure that's what Mengele said, too," Spike put in.

"Who is that guy?" Faith asked, wondering if she should be watching the news or should have paid attention in history class. 

"Nazi doctor," Spike said.

"Proof that having a soul doesn't necessarily make you good," Angel added. He turned his attention back to Knox. "What did the doctors do to him to damage him mentally?"

Knox shock his head. "Nothing. Eve said some heavy duty magic was used on him and when they reversed parts of the spell, he went suicidal. He became too much for the doctors to handle and Eve said he couldn't be allowed to die. He had a role to play and all that stuff so they brought in telepaths to figure out what was wrong. It was all their poking around that did the damage. I don't think we know if it's permanent or not. Eve seems to think he'll get better and she hired someone to help with that, someone the demon trusts but I don't know who."

Angel nodded. "Get out of here. Fred, you can deal with this. See if you can find any other irregularities and any other projects going on behind your back."

She bobbed her head, her long hair swinging. "Of course. Come on, Knox." This time there was nothing friendly in her voice toward him that Faith could hear.

Faith looked over at Wesley and wondered if Angel was going to send him away. The doctor had already gone on her way. Wesley ranged closer to the cage, staring in at Connor who was stirring. 

"What makes this young man so important?" Wesley fingered the bars of the cage. "You know more than you're saying, Angel."

"I don't know a thing about what's been done to him or why, Wesley. I know a little about his past. There's nothing there that'll help us now," Angel lied.

Wesley glanced over his shoulder at him. "You truly do not think he's involved with these killings?"

"No, I don't. As Faith pointed out, he would have been covered in blood if he killed those kids tonight," Angel said.

"And what of his companion, the one who attacked Spike?" Wesley asked.

"He may very well track Co...Steven back here," Angel said. "We have to be prepared for that. But in the meantime, I think your time is best spent on figuring out how to banish the Ays because I'm wagering Spike is right about them possessing those boys whom we know did at least some of the murderers."

Wes looked back at the cage as if torn between his desire to help stop the murderers and his innate curiosity about their captive. "I think I know how to do it. The problem will be finding them in order to cast the binding spell."

"Work on it," Angel said. Wesley nodded and headed out.

Faith went over to the cage. Connor was sitting up on the bed, shaking his head. "Do you want a drink of water or something? You probably have one hell of hangover from those tranqs."

Connor got up unsteadily, looking at her. His eyes widened seeing Spike and Angel. He took a step back and fell onto the cot. His head rapped against the bars. He startled, grabbing the bars as if seeing them for the first time. Jumping up he threw himself against the bars on one side then the other, racing back and forth, trying to batter his way free until he was bloody.

"This isn't going well," Spike said.

"We have to get him to stop," Angel said, going up to the bars.

Connor screamed "Demon!" and slammed himself against the bars trying to grab Angel.

"You don't have any weapons. Just calm down," Faith said.

That bit of information only seemed to make Connor more crazed. Angel snared him through the bars, pulling him against them backwards. He tried to slide an arm around Connor without putting him in a choke hold.

Angel made shushing noises, "It's all right, Connor. Just relax."

The boy went ballistic. Kicking, thrashing, arching his spine, almost climbing the walls. The word, 'demon' turned into gibberish as it spilled out of Connor's mouth faster and faster as his movements became more desperate. Faith elbowed Angel aside, getting her own grip on the boy.

"Angel, Spike, just step back away from the cage," she said. "He doesn't recognize you, Angel. You're only making it worse." Faith did put him in a choke hold but didn't put much pressure behind it. With her other hand she stroked his hair. "It's all right, Steven." She looked over her shoulder. "That's the name he seems to like," she added for Angel's sake. "It'll be all right. I won't let them hurt you. I know it's scary inside this cage."

Connor sobbed and his knees went out. Faith slid down the bars keeping contact with him all the way to the floor. 

"I know, I know how scary cages are. I've been in them. But it's for your own good. I promise you my job is to stop demons. I'm a Slayer. You met me before and somewhere inside the scrambled eggs those mind readers left you for brains, you'll remember that and you'll know I take demons out. So, if I'm saying Angel and Spike are good demons, you can trust that." She loosened her grip on him. Connor wept more loudly. "No one is going to hurt you again, okay? No one. I promise you. Angel and Spike are here to protect you, no more people hurting you. Can we talk about this now? You can go sit on the bed and we'll just talk."

Faith pulled her arms out of the cage. Connor curled into a ball weeping piteously. She stroked his back and gazed up at Angel sadly, "I don't think it's going to get better than this."

"Not until we find out what Eve had done to him. Someone needs to stay with him in case they try to spirit him away from here," Angel said, sounding like himself for the first time since Faith had flown into L.A.

"Faith and I can do that, Peaches," Spike said. "You go talk to the others, see what the bastards did to him, see if it can be fixed."

Angel managed a melancholy smile. "Thanks, Spike."

He turned and left. Spike gave Faith hand up. 

"This is majorly fucked up," she said.

"Yeah. Let's grab some chairs. We both know this ain't over," he said.

Faith wished he was wrong.


	9. Betrayal

CHAPTER NINE

Spike watched Faith trying to coax Connor out from under the cot. The boy remained firmly wedged, shaking. At least the wretched weeping had stopped. He couldn't move from the chair he had ensconced himself in without inciting the boy to charge the bars. If Faith wanted Connor out of from under the cot, all she needed to do was call Spike to the cage. "Just leave him there, Faith. He's fine."

She turned to face him, her eyes hot. "And you'd know that how?"

"I lived with Dru most of my life. I know from crazy. I know the moods and the signs. He'll calm down if we quit poking at him," Spike said, stretching his legs out in front of him. 

"I suppose you might be right." She stretched. "I need to relax. I'm beat. Mind if I get comfortable?"

Spike grinned. "What's that entail, luv?"

She reached behind her and undid the clasp on her bra then proceeded to go through the motions needed to wiggle it out from under her shirt. "Just this. Men ought to have to hoist their nuts up with padding, metal and itchy lace, too."

"I think there are men that do," Spike said. "You just have to go to the right clubs."

"Thanks but no," Faith said then whirled when her bra got yanked out of her hands. She saw Connor had crawled out from under the cot. He scampered back to the cot and laid down on it, her bra pressed to his cheek. "What the fuck?"

"Didn't you ever learn never to turn your back to ocean waves or men?" Spike smirked. "See the boy has his dad's fascination with breasts or is it Slayers?"

"Probably both." Faith rapped on the bars. "Can I have my bra back?"

Connor curled up tighter, a death grip on the bra. "Where's Father?"

"Hey, he knows more than 'demon lover'," Spike said. 

"Actually, Steven, I think he'll be here soon. You just rest. You can keep the bra if you want," Faith said, going back to sit next to Spike.

"How come women never make me that offer?" Spike asked.

"Because you're a perv and he's just a scared kid...who's probably a closet perv.

She shrugged. "Most men are."

"There you are, back to the dim view of mankind," Spike said.

"It's mostly justified." Faith shrugged. "Some of you aren't so bad. Angel, Giles, Xander. Not to say they can't be perverts when they put their minds to it."

"Trust me, Angel's a perv. I know. I've watched. I've bitched when he just decided to wander in and help himself to the woman I'm with before I'm done." Spike made a face.

"Yeah, like you were complaining." Faith rolled her eyes.

"When it was Dru, I did," Spike assured her.

Faith looked at him strangely. "You mean that. I guess sometimes you ain't so bad."

He licked his lips. "Bad as you want me to be."

"I'll get back to you on that," she flirted back.

"I'll be waiting." Spike smiled as sweetly as he knew how. "I mean that."

Faith's eyes opened slightly then she blushed just ever so slightly. He realized she understood he meant it. He knew it wouldn't fill the hole Buffy left in his heart but Buffy hadn't filled the hole Dru left. He just needed to dedicate a new area to them. 

"Demon loving bitch," Connor said.

"Hey, watch your mouth or I'll take that bra back." Faith stabbed a finger at him.

He pouted then stroked his cheek with the garment. "Smells like...happiness."

"He's so around the bend," Spike said.

Faith nodded, smothering a yawn. "Why don't you go see if Angel needs you? I can watch the kid by myself and he doesn't like you any how."

Spike nodded. He was already tired of watching Connor and he didn't like the feelings the boy stirred up in him, especially the jealousy. He had always been Angelus' favored son even when his sire by proxy was angry at him. He knew Angelus had been proud of his viciousness but now Angel had someone to love unconditionally in a way he had never loved anyone, in a way Spike had never been loved. He put his mother's love for him in the 'need to control' category, not the 'pure I'd do anything for you' type of love.

As he headed out, he knew that he shouldn't feel jealous. It was wrong but he had always been a jealous creature. It was why he was always in direct competition with Angel. He wanted what was his. Even if he got it, he wanted more. Still, he wasn't sure if he wanted this, a living child. He wasn't sure he could handle that kind of pain.

Spike found Angel in his suite sitting at the table with Wesley. Both men looked over at Spike, as if surprised to see him.

"Shouldn't you be getting some rest, finish up all that healing, Peaches?" Spike asked.

"You think I could sleep?" Angel's expression said Spike was in the running for the dumbest man alive.

"Maybe not. Faith thought I should come help you," Spike said, sitting on the couch.

"Doing what?" Wesley asked.

Spike shrugged. "Does it matter? The kid just gets more agitated if I'm around. Maybe you could use another set of eyes on the books or something."

"Actually I think I have everything well in hand. Fred can help me procure the last few items," Wes said, getting up. "I was only trying to help Angel with the medical reports on that boy downstairs. It throws into sharp relief how little impact trying to run the L.A. branch as a force of good has had. It's quite reprehensible stuff and even if we weren't helping, we have several employees turning a blind eye to it."

"That bad?" Spike asked.

"Hellacious." Wesley headed for the door. "Spike, we could use your help tonight trying to find those kids and free them from the demons' control."

"I'll be there." Spike kicked his feet up on the couch and waited for Wes to go before saying, "What did they do to him?"

Angel shook his head. Spike could see Angel was past emotion into that well of numbness that was so hard to claw your way out of. "You and I on our worst days wouldn't have thought of torturing someone like this. They were very interested in finding his limits and they had no qualms about putting someone in horrific pain. I'm not so sure it took telelpaths to destroy his mind. I've turned people's brains to jelly doing less than this."

"What now?"

"I don't know. I just don't know. There's the contract...but they broke it first. And Wesley's right, we're not doing any real good here. We're fooling ourselves. The good we have done is probably just a distraction from whatever else Wolfram and Hart is doing elsewhere." Angel ran a hand through what was left of his burnt hair. "I'll have to tell them all what I've done in order to find a way to help my son. How is he doing?"

"Me being there was upsetting him so I left. He stole Faith's bra and is using it as a security blanket." Spike leaned over the back of the couch watching Angel's perplexed expression. He wished he could enjoy that confusion but things were too dark for that.

"What?"

"He got her bra." Spike shrugged. "I figure so long as he isn't wearing it over his head like earmuffs or does something obscene with it, we're in the clear. He's pretty calm now though. He has a few other words in his vocabulary outside of demon and lover. He knows bitch and where's father."

"He's looking for Holtz," Angel said and, in spite of himself, Spike felt his own heart breaking for him.

"Faith told him his father would be here soon," Spike said. "It seemed to make him happy."

"It's probably not a lie." Angel crossed over and sat on the love seat, facing Spike. "Holtz may very well come here, thinking Wolfram and Hart might help him."

"He's been here," Spike said.

Angel's eyes popped. "What?"

Spike realized he may have let a dangerous cat out of the bag. "I've seen him in Eve's office."

"And you're just thinking to tell me this now." Angel reached across the coffee table to grab Spike.

. "I wouldn't talk about keeping secrets." Spike jerked away. " I know how to eavesdrop on Eve. She's trying to convince Daniel that you're to blame for Connor's condition."

"I'm surprised he wasn't here to kill me before this in that case," Angel said, settling back.

"He didn't believe her and they are planning on killing you, Angel. Eve said Daniel had to keep the kid from killing you before schedule. He didn't know that he could. He sounded sincerely worried that he wasn't able to control Connor and that the boy wasn't eating or sleeping except when he used the drugs Eve gave him to control Connor." Spike shook his head. "He doesn't trust her and if he comes here, it'll be her he's looking for, for double crossing him. I got the impression he was very worried about the kid."

Angel nodded. "He might be. I think he did come to love Connor when they were trapped in Quor-Toth. Being resurrected doesn't seem to have changed that. He won't want to hurt Connor but he might be willing to sacrifice him in order to get to me."

"I remember what you and Darla used to laugh about, what you did to this man, I can see why he would but when it comes to carrying a grudge he's gotta win records." Spike lit up and tossed Angel the pack. Angel helped himself. "Faith and I heard you strangling Eve." Spike said and Angel paused, a startled expression on his face. "I've got no trouble with you killing her for this. Faith doesn't like it. Just thought you should know."

Angel took a deep drag on the cigarette, "Thanks. I'll keep it in mind."

"Of course, Eve's probably taken the fastest jet out of town."

Angel shook his head. "No. The Senior Partners run the show. If they wanted her to handle this, they may force her back here. It'll depend on who she thinks will kill her first, me or them. You going to stick around to help?"

"Do I look like I'm going to cut and run?" Spike took a drag. "Do you really want me helping with this?"

"Like it or not, you're family. Besides, you had the most patience with Dru out of all of us. You now how to handle someone in Connor's fragile mental condition. You and I have the most experience and I could use your help," Angel said as if it had cost him everything to say it.

"Yeah but my way of handling Dru when she got bad was to make love to her. I've never been into boys," Spike said.

"And if you were, I wouldn't have asked you to stay. When this is over, everyone will either be helping or deserting me. I can't even guess which." Angel sucked on the filter of his cigarette. "But I need you because only you and I or a Slayer has the strength to hold Connor down if he gets too agitated. I don't want him hurting anyone because he's having a psychotic episode. You saw him in that cage earlier. Faith could barely hold on."

"Good point. I'll be here. Anything you need me to do now?"

"I'm going down to check on him. I know I shouldn't but I can't help it. You can come with," Angel said.

"Yeah sure, not like I need sleep or anything," Spike grumbled but he got up to follow his grandsire.

* *

Faith decided watching someone sleep was about as boring a duty as she had ever pulled. Even an encounterless patrol was better since at least she could get up and walk. She wanted to go into the cage once or twice and shake Connor awake. She could see he was having nightmares. He moaned and thrashed and she wanted to do more than shout his name and startle him more. She didn't have the key.

At least now he was in a deeper, more restful sleep. He looked amazingly innocent, lying on his side, his lips parted, hair falling over his face. His slight snoring was just the drone Faith needed to put her to sleep. She still hurt a little and was exhausted but she was a Slayer and she could fight sleep, right? She used thoughts of Spike to keep her awake.

She wondered what game he was playing, acting like he cared about her. She didn't think he did, not in a deep way at any rate. Maybe he wanted to be a friend. Somehow she figured he didn't have many. Maybe it was just about the sex. That was easy enough. Do it and he'd go away. But what if he didn't? Was she ready to have a real friend? Robin and Angel were about the only ones she had. She knew Buffy and her friends were just tolerating her. Maybe they could be friends. Maybe not. It was hard to tell with that much dark water under the bridge. It might be worth exploring.

Faith was half asleep when she heard someone come into the room. Instantly awake, she got up but it was only Gunn. She smiled sheepishly. "He's sleeping like a little angel."

"He's anything but," Gunn said.

Faith wasn't sure if it was his words, the totally emotionless tone or the flat, blank look on Gunn's face but alarms went off in her brain. Gunn had been called up to meet with the Senior Partners. Hadn't Wes said that Gunn had direct contact with those mysterious partners? Faith suddenly wondered if that link meant they could give Gunn orders, even ones he might not want to fulfill. "What brings you back here, Gunn?" She tensed, not wanting to put him down. She liked Gunn.

"Business."

"I think we'll wait for Angel, whadda you say?" She took hold of his arm.

Gunn twisted just slightly and the electrodes from his taser embedded into her belly. Faith bit her tongue as her body convulsed. More pain exploded as her head hit the floor. When her senses cleared, she had been handcuffed to Connor's cage. She couldn't move yet, her whole body filled with the pins and needles feeling. She heard Eve's voice.

"Come on, just get it done. I need to get out of here but the Senior Partners won't let me go until it's done."

Gunn just grunted at her and Faith was more convinced that he was being controlled. She turned, pulling on her shackles. They were too tight. Eventually she'd be able to break them. She knew she didn't have time. Gunn had a syringe in hand and something told Faith it was either a lethal dose or something to sedate Connor long enough for him to be transported out of here. She was betting on the latter if Eve had made travel plans and the fact that Connor was living out in the streets with Holtz. The Senior Partners were done with Project 229.

Connor stalked around the inside of his cage but there was nothing he could do. He was a sitting duck. Faith didn't have a clear view, tied to the bottom of the cage as she was but she saw Eve trying to take aim with a taser like the one Gunn had, the cop-styled one that shot electrodes to keep some distance between police and perp. Faith kicked out and tagged Eve's ankle. She fell, crying out. Faith knew she hadn't really hurt her, too damn bad.

"Gunn, hurry up and kill him," Eve said, reaching for the taser which had landed close to the cage.

"Steven, get that thing!" Faith yelled but the kid was way ahead of her. He had the gun in hand and he shot Eve with it. "Good boy."

Gunn took advantage of Connor concentrating on Eve and he shot the boy in the back with another taser. Connor's head bashed into the bars before he fell. Gunn started toward the cage and he was opposite Faith so there was nothing she could do. She pulled hard on her shackles, feeling flesh tearing but not enough to let her slip free. Gunn grabbed Connor's ankle, yanking him closer to the cage so he could inject them.

"Gunn, don't! You don't want to hurt him," Faith cried.

Gunn brought the syringe to bear. Faith heard a twang and an arrow sprouted out of Gunn's thigh. He fell to his side, panting in pain, both hands around the wound. The syringe rolled free. Faith looked at the door and saw Holtz there. He came across the room and grabbed Eve by the hair, dragging her up.

"You betrayed me, woman." Holtz's voice gave Faith shivers. She didn't want to know what he was about to do but at this point, she could get behind killing Eve. "Now let my son out of the cage."

"Angel has the key. He's the one who did this," Eve said, her thin body quivering.

"She's lying," Faith said. "Angel's trying to help him. She's trying to kill Steven."

Holtz looked between Eve and Faith, considering it. "Let him go now, Eve."

"Angel will kill you both," Eve said.

"She's the one who damaged Steven's mind," Faith said. "Her doctors tortured him then she set mind readers on him."

Eve grabbed one of Holtz's stakes off his belt and tried to stabbed him with it. He slammed her face down into a lab table and let her drop. "Does the other one have the key?" He pointed to Gunn.

"I don't know. He has the keys to my handcuffs. Free me and I'll help you," Faith said. "Just don't hurt Gunn. He doesn't know what he's doing."

"I don't think I'll be freeing you, young lady. I've seen what you're capable of doing," Holtz said. "All I want is my son."

Faith saw Angel and Spike coming in behind Holtz. She hoped she could keep him distracted until the vampires could do something about him. "I only you guys because Steven attacked me. I'm a Slayer. Do you know what that is? It's my job to kill demons."

"Yet I've seen you with the little blond one. You're here with Angelus. I don't think I can trust you," Holtz said, turning and firing. The crossbow bolt struck Angel just above the groin. Angel gasped and went to his knees. "It's odd, how you can almost feel them coming up on you." He tried to load up but Spike moved faster than Faith had ever seen him go.

He yanked Holtz closer with the end of his own crossbow and punched him in the face. Holtz reeled back. "That's for calling me little." Spike hit him again. "That's for shooting me." Bleeding, Holtz tried to open a bottle of holy water but Spike batted it away then took Holtz to the ground. "And that's for burning me with a cross." He stopped Holtz's struggles with another punch. "And that's for not shooting Peaches in the balls."

"Are you okay, Angel?" Faith asked.

Angel pulled the arrow free. "Disappointed I didn't get a few licks in."

"Gunn tried to kill Connor, Angel. I think he's being controlled. He chained me up," Faith said.

Angel crossed over to Gunn who was still on the floor bleeding heavily. He dug in the man's pockets and came up with the key. "Spike, call the infirmary before he bleeds to death. I think that nicked his femoral artery."

Spike nodded and went to the phone. Angel freed Faith and she helped him put Holtz in her shackles. The man was breathing but battered. Connor, still a little groggy from being tasered, crawled on his belly to reach out to the man through the bars.

"Help's on its way," Spike said. "What the hell happened here?"

"Where's Eve?" Faith realized the woman was no longer on the ground, bleeding from the wound Holtz had inflicted on her forehead when he smashed her into the table. Faith saw Eve had the syringe and was going for Connor's exposed arm. "Angel, I think that syringe has poison in it."

Angel grabbed Eve, jerking her away from the cage. She whirled on him trying to stab him with the syringe and he calmly grabbed her head and twisted. Faith winced, hearing the snapping of Eve's neck. Angel let her lie there like a doll. 

No one said anything for several moments. Faith couldn't breathe, shocked by the casualness of it. Her wrists throbbed from the damage she had done trying to escape so she tried to divert her attention to them instead of Eve's limp body. Angel's eyes met hers and she managed not to look away. "I think the Senior Partners meeting with Gunn was to get control of him or something." Faith rubbed her bleeding wrists.

"Once Gunn's taken care of, we'll sort this out," Angel said. "I'll arrange to have Eve disposed of."

Faith didn't like the dead tone in his voice but at this point she felt no remorse for Eve. She spared that for Gunn who she would continue to believe didn't know what he was doing until proven otherwise and for Holtz whom she feared might not live out the day if Angel had anything to say about it.


	10. Compromises

_Author's Note - Thanks to everyone who gave me feedback for this. It was very helpful. I hope you enjoy this, the final, chapter _

CHAPTER TEN

"I stink," Faith moaned, covered in a thin layer of purple goo. 

Spike was trying hard not to get too close to her in the back seat of one of Angel's car. The blond vampire only had a little of the goo on him but Angel had exiled him to the back seat with Faith after the Ays demons had been handled at the college. They should have known cornering the boys in their dorm room was a bad idea, not enough room to fight, not to mention escape the backlash of Wes and Fred's spell to contain the demons. Unconscious kids littering the floor, Wes and Fred outside the room working their mojo leaving Spike and Faith at ground zero. Angel had already been knocked out the window by the Ays demons. Now Angel was lead-footing it through town back to the law firm sans Fred and Wes who had stayed behind with the kids to turn them over to the cops. 

Spike doubted they were achieving sound barrier speeds because of the stench of the purple slime, or the glass orb containing demons riding in the front seat with Angel. Spike knew his grandsire enough to know he wanted to be back with Connor and Holtz to either do something without thinking or just brood some more. "We both stink."

Faith wrung goo from her hair, leaning out the window like a dog. "Demons suck."

"Well, only when asked, luv." Spike smirked at her and saw Angel toss him a warning glance over the back of the seat. "Wes and Fred obviously studied how to plan so things blow up in your face from Angel. Lucky we all didn't end up possessed." He gauged Angel's reaction which was merely a tightening of his knuckles around the steering wheel. How dull. What fun was teasing if Angel wouldn't react?

Faith thumped his leg. "At least it's over. Ays demons are jarred. The kids are getting arrested and I'm not sure if I feel sorry for them or not. Probably not, if Wes is right and they summoned the demons on purpose. But once I get the goo off me, I'll be five by five."

"I can scrub your back for you," Spike said, half hoping she'd say yes, half hoping to get a rise out of Angel. He got another over the shoulder glare from the vampire and Faith rolled her eyes.

She leaned close to him and whispered. "Not to change the subject but what do you think he's gonna do...you know, about Holtz?" She gestured at Angel. "I know I shouldn't but I feel bad for Holtz. He has to be sitting there worrying if and when he's going to be killed." 

Spike shrugged. Giving someone time to make peace with God was generous in comparison to what Angelus was used to doling out. In spite of himself, Spike admired Holtz's ability to handle himself against vampires. He couldn't have exacted a better vengeance on Angel if he had tried. "Angel might not kill him. He let him go last time."

Faith bobbed her head. "I trust Angel to do the right thing." She looked up to see if Angel was listening in, Spike figured. Angel seemed to be in his own little world. "Spike, this quiet little dance we're doing, what's it all about?"

Spike looked away, fumbling for the cigarettes, wishing he had an easy answer. It was a bullet he had been half hoping to dodge. "I don't know. I'm not playing you, if that's what you're worried about, looking for sex."

"No, that would be too easy," Faith muttered.

"I know." He took a deep drag on the freshly lit cigarette, passing her the pack. He waited for Angel to yell at them for smoking in the car or bum a ciggie but he did neither. "I'm not looking to replace Buffy. That's not fair to any of us. I don't know...I just feel this...connection to you, you know? We both know what it's like to be on the outside in the rain, looking in at everyone inside. They're warm, loved, having fun and you're not invited to the party. I know what that's like. So does Angel. So do you."

"Got that right." 

Spike heard the bitterness in Faith's voice. "You and me and Angel, we're different, two souled vampires and a rehabilitated rogue Slayer. Sounds like a bad combination but I think it can work."

Faith looked him up and down. "Spike, if this is some kind of a proposal for a three-way between us, I'm not interested."

Spike saw Angel's head snap around. In a space this small, he knew Angel couldn't help but overhear but hadn't bothered to let Faith in on that. Angel almost didn't turn his attention back to his driving in time to avoid running up on the sidewalk. He yanked the wheel hard, sliding Spike into Faith. The Slayer shoved him back. "Hell, no. He's invited himself in on the action between me and my girls more than enough to last several life times. If I never see him naked again I'll die happy, trust me." He smirked, seeing the expression on Angel's face as the elder vampire looked over the seat yet again.

"Angel would probably be just as happy," Faith said.

"Why don't you ask Mr. Big Ears? He's listening in." Spike gestured at the other vampire. "Car coming!"

Angel pulled the car back into his own lane before he ended up in a head-on.

"Angel!" Faith shot him a dirty look.

"I can't help it. You're loud." He shrugged. "Giles should have warned you vampires have really good hearing."

Spike winced a bit at the hot look Faith shot him for holding that tidbit back but he blundered on with the conversation. "If friendship turns into a little slap and tickle, I'm okay with that, too."

"What about Harmony?" Faith smiled derisively.

"You have no idea how dull that gets even with her role playing games. I'm looking for more than that and I'm not asking you to provide it. I'm just saying don't close the door on me," Spike said, wondering why he was shimmying out on the thin branch like this, especially in public. Probably because when it was him and Dru and Darla and Angelus, they were all very public with their affections.

"I'll keep it in mind."

"Can you two stop flirting where I can hear you?" Angel asked, plaintively, running a red light. 

"Aww, we're making him blush," Spike said.

Faith slapped him. "Sorry, Angel. So what was up with those kids? Did you get a load of how they were dressed? What was that? Goth by Wal-Mart?"

"I think they all saw one too many Slasher flicks," Angel said, obviously grateful for the subject change. "They had everything Hollywood told them they should."

"I noticed," Faith replied. "All the black candles, pentagrams, silver stuff, heavy metal posters, the Necronomicon, a Halloween skull. I know Willow said black candles and pentagrams are for doing good things, not whatever the hell those twits were trying to do with them."

"Think Peaches is right," Spike said. "Did you see the movie collection on the shelves? _The Exorcist, Day of the Dead, Jeepers Creepers, Ricky 6, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, House on Haunted Hill, Evil Dead, Wrong Turn_. Every freaking slasher flick they could get their fingers on."

"You'd think magic wouldn't work for the stupid," Faith said then leaned over the seat to look at Angel. "What are you planning to do with Holtz? Only asking cause when we get back I need a shower and I don't want to come out and find you've done something...hasty."

Angel looked at her sourly. "I won't. I need to think about what I have to do with him and my son. "

"Great, how old are you prepared to get waiting for him to think up a plan, Faith?" Spike curled his lip, seeing Angel shooting him the bird and nearly losing control of their speeding car.

"Be nice," Faith said.

"Please, to paraphrase Rimmer, Angel's got more teeth than brain cells," Spike said.

"Rimmer?" Faith asked.

"_Red Dwarf_," Spike replied, flicking the stump of his cigarette out the window.

"What's that?"

"A fucking funny show from back home. Kinda sci-fi, which I don't normally go for but you have to love Lister's attitude." Spike gave her a disappointed look. "You don't know _Red Dwarf_? I'll have to educate you."

"Why does that sound wrong and creepy?" Faith asked.

"Because it's Spike that said it," Angel said then tapped the orb on the seat beside him. "Spike, when we get back, you take these demons to the containment area in Wolfram and Hart. Faith needs a shower and I'll be busy thinking up a plan. You know how hard that is for me." That last was almost Angelus in its mocking tone.

"Great, stick me with disposal duty," Spike whined. "Smeghead."

"Containment area?" Faith's lips twitched. "Anyone else feel like we're suddenly in Ghostbusters?"

Spike snorted. "You're a hell of a lot cuter than Bill Murray."

"Ditto. Come on, Angel, drive faster. This stuff's starting to crust," Faith demanded, flaking a layer of goo off her arm.

Spike just sat back and took stock of the way the slime had plastered her shirt to her body. Angel buried the speedometer's needle in lieu of answering.

* * *

Faith was actually surprised Angel wasn't in the holding pen area with his son when she got out of the shower. Spike had gone to dump off the demon orb and she had no idea what was on Angel's mind. She broke into his suite and he wasn't there either so that left either he was checking on Gunn who, after surgery, had no recollection of trying to murder a kid, or he was with Holtz. She rather not interrupt that.

Instead she wanted to test a theory, something Giles had recently taught her. She raided Angel's laundry basket and took a black silk shirt. _Damn, Spike's not the only delicate doily around here. What is it with vamps and silk?_

She headed down to the holding pen but decided to take a swing past Angel's office just to see if he was there and out of her way. Movers were already in Eve's office. She wondered if Angel knew. To her surprise, Angel came out of his office. 

"I thought you would be with Holtz," Faith said.

"Called Giles and told him everything. Harmony's faxing all of Eve's files on Connor to him now. I'll tell Wesley and the others later," Angel said.

"You know they're taking every thing out of Eve's office?" Faith gestured down the hall, Angel's shirt fluttering in her hand like a flag.

"Everything Wes and I didn't pull out of there earlier." He smirked. "See, I'm not dumber than Xander."

"Guess that leaves Andrew as the reigning king then."

"Why do you have one of my shirts?" He nodded at it.

She looked slightly contrite. "I want to try something."

"You could have asked me," he scolded, gently.

"Not my style," Faith replied as Spike got off the elevator. 

"Got the ghosty-demons settled with the guys in containment, Peaches."

"Good. Wes called. He said some of the kids regained consciousness. There was no adult giving them direction. They were typical teens wanting money, power and girls, only they chose a very atypical way of getting it," Angel said.

"Losers. How'd they find about the Ays demons to start with?" Faith asked.

"They found hints of it on the web and hacked into the Watcher's new database. Willow is horrified and is fixing the problem. Giles had some unrepeatable things to say about computers." Angel's smirk went even more devilish. "The rest they made up as they went along with the Ays egging them on until the conditions were right to take them whole."

"Eww. Okay, Angel, you and Spike go get Holtz and bring him down to Connor's holding pen. Give me a few minutes to try something," Faith said.

"What are you planning?" Angel asked.

Faith shrugged. "I'm kinda going on gut instinct. Giles is trying to teach me to plan and strategize but I ain't the quickest study in the class. Can you trust me on this?"

"I guess. Do you have anything in mind?"

Faith nodded. "Connor responds to Holtz. You saw that last night in the cage. Spike and I have seen it in the field. I'm not even sure he recognized you, Angel, beyond the fact you're a vampire who needs to die. Whether you like it or not Eve's little group rebonded him to Holtz. If you want to help Connor, Holtz might have to be involved." Faith met Angel's gaze levelly. At least his eye had healed and wasn't all milky like it had been.

His brow went Cro-Magnon. "You're right."

"So I'm hoping he isn't dead yet," Faith said, uneasily.

"He's fine but just giving him back Connor isn't an answer, Faith," Angel cautioned.

"Yeah, I knew that much," she said. "I'll meet you two down there."

Faith sent the guard on his way when she got to the room. Connor was pacing along the bars like the cougar she had seen on a field trip back in Boston as a kid. The tray of food he had been given was untouched. He stopped upon seeing her but he looked far less hostile than he had in the past.

"You need to eat, Steven. I can practically see through you," Faith said, smiling as sweetly as she knew how. She was used to smiling to seduce not to put at ease.

He returned the smile bashfully. He let his head droop a bit, hiding behind his David Cassidy haircut as the silky strands fell over his face. __

_He so needs a trim_, she thought. She held out the shirt. "A gift, just to let you know I'm not holding grudges over what you called me or that ass-kicking."

He edged over to the bars, looking at her as if struggling to process the idea. Faith realized given what Angel had said about him being raised in hell, the kid may never have had a gift before. She waggled the shirt and he took it, dancing back away from the bars, seemingly afraid to stay in grabbing distance. After the incident with Gunn and Eve, she didn't blame him. He fingered the silk shirt confused then tugged up his scrub shirt.

"No, Steven, I don't want you to put it on," she said and he let go of the hem. "Do what you did with my bra." Faith pantomimed sniffing.

Connor put the silk to his nose then jerked it away making a face like a skunk had caught him between the eyes. He took a deeper sniff and Faith watched him crumble. She was reminded of the china doll that a prissy little girl in grade school had treasured. Faith had crushed its face underfoot because the girl had laughed at Faith's tattered clothes. Faith remembered how the doll had shattered. Connor had that same look. His legs gave out and he sat down hard. He buried his face in the shirt screaming so loud, hard and long, Faith thought his throat would bleed. Her plan has worked a little too well.

"Steven...Connor, come closer to the bars. I can't help you from there," Faith called but he wouldn't unball. He squirmed until the shirt was under his head like a pillow. His face went red and mottled while he cried but his eyes remained dry, like he was crying from a tear in his soul more so than sadness.

"What did you do, Faith?" Angel asked as he came in. Spike followed Angel, leading Holtz whose hands had been shackled behind him. 

"If your gut instinct was to make him cry, I think it worked," Spike said, pushing Holtz down into the chair.

Faith scowled at them. "My plan was to help him to remember. He seems to know Holtz but not us."

"He does not know me well," Holtz interjected. "He remembers on some level but he is not as he was."

"Yeah, big shock after Wolfram and Hart got their claws in him," Faith said. "I was hoping maybe he was taking my bra because ths smell was reminding him of me. Giles was lecturing us about how good scent works on triggering memories."

"So you thought my shirt would help Connor remember me," Angel said, sounding proud of her.

"Yeah, and that happened." She gestured into the cage. The screaming had died in volume and the tears had come. "I wanted to go in there with him, see if I can quiet him down but I don't have the key."

"Rule number one, Faith when dealing with the mentally unstable, don't overstimulate them or that happens," Spike said, pointing.

"He's not unstable," Angel grumbled. "He's just in a state of confusion."

"And you're the king of denial. Just give me the key to the cell," Faith demanded.

"It's a little dangerous, Faith. Why don't you let me-"

"Angel, for one, I'm the Slayer. I can handle myself. Two, you just make him more nuts simply by standing there pretending you breathe," Faith interrupted. "I was thinking Connor might calm down for Holtz."

"It's worth a try," Holtz said and Faith was amazed he didn't look smug about it.

Angel eyes him sourly then nodded undoing the hand cuff off one of Holtz's wrists and securing it to the bars. 

"Only I am not sure it will work. His agitation is the reason I was brought back and even at that it was still necessary to give him medication to keep him calm," Holtz admitted.

"What did you give him?" Angel grabbed his shoulder, nearly tearing the man off the bars.

Holtz winced in pain then said. "I don't know. Whatever Miss Eve gave me. It mostly worked except once when nothing would calm him."

"I hate this," Angel muttered.

"It is not what I wanted either." Holtz tried to get down on Connor's level but the cross bars wouldn't let him slid all the way to the floor. "Steven, please, this isn't helping. Calmly now, that's how we stay safe."

Faith listened to his unusual words of comfort and realized that where Connor was raised, making noise made it that much easier for the demons to find you.

"Connor," Angel said. "Please listen to him."

Connor rolled so he was flat on his belly. He lifted his head up, cheeks wet, lips trembling. "Why did you do it?"

Silence shrouded the room. No one moved for a moment.

"I am sorry for what I did and for what I forced you to do," Holtz said.

"I did what I did to try and save you," Angel put in. "To give you a happy life."

"Now to figure out which of you he was talking to," Spike mumbled.

"I'm nobody now...a nothing," Connor moaned, pressing his face into the floor.

"That's not true. You're someone very special to just about everyone in here." Angel stepped away from Holtz as if to ease any fears Connor might have about him hurting the man.

"You're important enough that someone went through the trouble of raising the dead," Faith said.

"Hell, they even organized a hit squad, which isn't comforting but it ought to prove you ain't a nobody," Spike offered.

"Come over here so we can talk like gentlemen, Steven." Holtz beckoned with his unshackled hand.

Connor just made like a frightened hedgehog. 

"Screw this, Angel, open this cage," Faith insisted.

He complied and she went in. Faith cautiously knelt beside Connor, half expecting to get belted across the cage. He didn't move. Faith stroked his shoulder and Connor's skin twitched under her touch. She kept up the soothing motion and he slowly responded, sitting up. He looked at her and she felt her heart breaking not just for him but for the two men on the outside of the cage looking in. 

She held out her arms and he eased into them tentatively as if afraid she was going to hurt him. Faith gently closed her embrace. Holding him, she rocked him slightly until he slowly quieted and calmed down, resting against her, breathing hard. "There you go," she said. "I know it's not all better. We're a long way from there but this is a start." She smoothed his hair. "Do you remember me, Ste...which name do you want me to use?"

"Doesn't matter," he mumbled.

"It matters," she assured him.

"Call him Connor," Holtz said. "It was the name he was meant to have."

Both Angel and Faith looked at him in surprise. "Do you remember who they are?" Faith pointed to the men.

Connor bobbed his head, his cheek moving against her neck. "Not the white haired one."

"You've never met Spike until a few nights ago," Angel said.

"And my hair is platinum, not white," Spike said then did a full body shudder. "I sound like Harmony, stake me."

"Gladly," Angel replied.

"How about me? Do you remember me?" Faith asked.

"You beat me," Connor mumbled. "Liked you."

"That's good. I don't remember you any more. There was a big spell to make you forget all the bad stuff you went through, so you could live a happy life. No one remembers you but Angel and obviously the higher ups at Wolfram and Hart. They're the ones who did this to you," Faith said.

"I'm all gone." He pressed a hand to his mouth. "Just bits left. Nothing fits."

"It will, Connor," Angel said. "I'm sorry. It wasn't supposed to be this way. I just wanted to give you all the things you never had and could never have because of the things that had happened to you. Do you remember the last time you saw me? Do you remember the mall?"

Connor shook his head, his hand questing for Faith's. She let him hold it.

"Maybe it's better you don't remember that," Angel said. "You wanted to die and I tried the only thing I knew to do to keep you alive. But they lied to me."

"Too many lies," Connor said.

"I know." Angel shoved his hands into his pockets.

"Don't let him hurt Father," Connor whispered in Faith's ear so quiet she barely heard him.

She cupped the back of his head, pressing his cheek down against her shoulder. "He's not going to."

"What's wrong?" Angel asked liked the nervous father he was.

"He's afraid you're gonna hurt Holtz," Faith said, feeling Connor tremble at hearing it out loud.

"I'm not." Angel took a few steps towards the door to the cage but stopped when Connor cringed. "I don't know what's going to happen, Connor, but I promise you, I won't kill him."

"Shouldn't be here. I made sure he wouldn't rise." Connor pointed at Holtz.

"Uh, what's he talking about?" Faith asked.

"To keep someone killed by a vampire from rising you have to decapitate them or burn the body...which I never thought about until now. What did you do, Connor? Tell me you let Justine do that for you." Angel's voice wavered with horror.

"He would never trust it to anyone else,' Holtz said.

"Oh, gross. No wonder you're fucked up," Faith said. "But you know he's not a vampire. I know you can tell one from the other."

"Zombie?" Connor asked, more question than statement of fact. "Kinda like vampires."

"I'm not a zombie, Ste...Connor," Holtz said, sternly.

"And zombies are nothing like us, yob," Spike said. "They're slow and stupid, for one."

"Forget it. We've had this conversation before. He'd much rather not see the distinction. Connor, Wolfram and Hart brought Holtz back from the dead. It took a lot of magic to do that. It's how they brought back your mother once, too. If it wasn't for that, you wouldn't be here," Angel said.

"Hate magic." Connor thumped the floor with a fist.

"Yeah, it's a real bitch, ain't it?" Faith said.

Connor tensed against her. "Why did they?"

"That's what we all like to know. I was hoping this wasn't all part of your plan, Holtz. Make him think I killed you and have Wolfram and Hart bring you back once Connor killed me," Angel said, his eyes boring into the man.

Holtz shook his head, leaning against the cage. "I did no such thing. What they did to me is the worst kind of blasphemy. I was more than ready to lay my burden down. They couldn't control St...Connor after whatever it was that made him so wild, so....crazed. They thought he might respond to me. They brought me back to be his keeper and told me you did this to him."

"I didn't...I made him forget that he was the son of two demons, yes but I put him somewhere where he could be a normal kid. This...this Wolfram and Hart did." Angel couldn't hide his disgust.

Holtz sighed. "I thought as much. I knew you would not hurt him."

"You were counting on that when you sent him after me," Angel said.

"What happened?" Holtz favored Angel with an inquisitive look. I never dreamed he'd join you."

"He didn't. He and Justine welded me into a coffin and sunk me to the bottom of the ocean," Angel said.

"Quite appropriate," Holtz said. "Unending suffering but someone obviously found you."

"Justine told Wesley. Remember him? The guy whose throat she cut?" Angel asked harshly then regretted it watching Connor shrivel up more. "After I came back, things got really ugly and I don't want to go into them right now. Connor's upset enough. Neither of us were very good fathers. That's why I tried to find him a better one but nothing I do ever seems to work right, not where my son is concerned. I just keep making things worse."

"Well, the Beast and the shit with Cordy didn't help," Faith said.

"Cordy? Where?" Connor asked, looking up at Faith.

Faith grimaced and glanced over at Angel, not wanting to be the one to tell the kid Cordelia had passed away.

"She's gone, son. We'll talk about that later," Angel said.

Connor's face wrinkled. Faith wondered if he knew what Angel meant by gone but he didn't press it. She shook his shoulders. "Want to get up and go outside this cage?" He tensed. "No? Okay, we won't."

"I was surprised to see you here," Holtz said. "I was afraid he had killed you by accident. You don't look like a demon or a vampire but the way you fought....and you're fine, just a bit bruised."

"I'm a Slayer," Faith said.

"You said so when you were in my position." He rattled his cuff against the bars. "What does that mean?"

"I'm a Vampire Slayer. It's a calling so they tell me. Basically, one girl in all the world gets chosen to fight the demons until she dies and another one takes her place...that was until Buffy spread the power all over the place and now there's dozens of us." Faith shrugged. "It's our job to kill demons and keep the normals safe."

Holtz's eyes narrowed. "But you are working with two demons."

"They both have souls," Faith said. "They're the good guys...now. I know they weren't when you knew them...well, Angel. You don't know Spike, do you?"

"Spike came much later," Angel said.

"Vampires do not have souls," Holtz protested.

"Not normally but these two do. Angel got cursed with his soul as a punishment by some gypsies after he killed their favorite daughter and her people took their vengeance...which seems to be a recurring theme with Angel." Faith snorted. "Spike asked for his soul to impress a girl. He's shallow and stupid that way."

"Hey!" Spike said, looking deeply offended.

"It's okay, Spike. We expect that of blonds," Faith said.

"Yeah right, blond." Angel made a noise that might have been a laugh.

"It's a good thing he's not with Buffy any more. There wouldn't be enough peroxide in town to keep them happy," Faith said and Spike's eyes narrowed. "But the point is, these two have their souls. Something for you and Connor to learn; not all demons are bad ones."

"Lorne," Connor growled.

"Yeah that's an example. He's harmless...kinda like living with the Queer Eye guys but he does good for people," Faith said. "What I'm getting at, no matter how or why they got their souls, these two are saving people now...making up for what they did. Sort of. You can't ever take that stuff back. Trust me, I know first hand. But they're good even if hearing it makes them squirm."

"It just sounds wrong," Spike whined.

"Yes, it does," Holtz said. "And you think this makes me trust you?"

"No. You can't make people do that. Connor trusted me once or so I'm told. Once this spell gets truly reversed, I'll remember it," Faith said. "And maybe things will be better for you then, Connor. I know it's all scary right now and that's a bad place to be. Been there, too."

Holtz nodded. "Like when I was brought back. They told me that weeks had past before I was myself again. I could only remember that time in frightening bits and pieces."

"Once, I was the same as Connor was until his break through today," Angel said. "I spent five hundred years in a hell. Time moved differently there just as it did in Quor-Toth. It took a while before I felt like myself but I had friends who helped me recover. We can help you, Connor. I promise that we'll try our best."

"I...can't." He clung tighter to Faith.

"Sure you can." She held him close. "You just have to let us help. Angel's good at it. Spike...well, I'm sure he can help. He knows about taking care of people who are confused up here." She tapped his temple. "And Giles, I bet he could help. You don't know him but he's really good at that stuff. He saved Willow. Maybe we could go to England. I'd go with you so you wouldn't be alone."

"That's actually not a bad idea," Angel said, surprising her. Faith had only been talking to keep Connor from getting hopeless. She didn't think Angel would go for that. "I've already asked for Giles' help. I could find my way there, too. Connor's never been out of this city. He should know there is more to life than Los Angeles."

"Yeah, like there's actually nice places to be," Spike said then nodded at Holtz. "But what about him?" 

"Maybe you'd like to meet Giles as well, Holtz. He's a Watcher. They're the ones who train the Slayers, do all the research on the demons, give the girls guidance," Angel said, further shocking Faith. "You used to have a troop of vampire hunters who didn't have the skill or stamina or strength the Slayers do and you did well enough in spite of it."

"Shit yeah, Giles could use the help. The Watchers nearly got wiped out," Faith said, hoping Angel wasn't kidding just to keep Connor from knowing his real plan for Holtz. "I saw you out there with the vampires. You're good. You could train the Slayers, kill some more demons and have a little something else in your life beside...well, nothing."

Holtz gave them a perplexed look. "You would trust me out there in the world?"

Angel reached over and uncuffed him. "I'm not going to kill you so I guess that's my only other choice. I don't think you want to hurt Connor, either. I don't know how you managed to survive in Quor-Toth, let alone kept an infant alive. I don't approve of everything you did to him there but you tried to make him into a good man. And I think you know if you kill me now, you'll hurt him. To my mind, half of what destroyed Connor inside was the conflict between what you raised him to believe and what he saw in me with his own eyes. I fell into a shade of grey he couldn't see without it pulling him apart. You're back in this world again, Holtz. You can either leave it or find a way to live in it."

Holtz gazed at Connor and Faith wished she knew what he was thinking. She had suggested the Watcher thing because it was the first thing that sprung to mind and it was a way she could keep an eye on him, make sure he wouldn't double back and try to kill Angel.

"The Watcher gig ain't so bad," Spike said. "If you like reading and putting up with teenaged girls. That last part is some scary shit."

Holtz laughed, managing to make it sound grim. "I am willing to meet with Giles. But what of Connor?"

"For now, he stays here with me, until we work out the spell. And then I think Faith's idea might be a good one," Angel said. "He's old enough to make his own choices as to where he wants to go after that."

Connor's head jerked up. Faith saw the surprise in his eyes. "I choose?"

Angel nodded. "Both Holtz and I have been making all your decisions for you, thinking we knew best what you wanted, what was good for you. After I gave you up, I thought about me and my own father and how I hated it when he did that to me. Sometimes you have no choice. When it's your child, you have to make some unpopular decisions. But no one ever bothered to ask you what you wanted to see if a compromise could be reached. I'm sorry for that. Right now, you're in no shape to make choices, but I'm confident you will heal, Connor and then you can make your own choices, even if that means you might never want to see me again."

Faith saw the tears sheening Angel's eyes. The quiver in Connor's lips told her he saw it, too. "Sounds like a good deal to me, kid."

"Yeah." He got up then hesitated.

Faith jumped up and put an arm over his shoulders, leading him out. He paused by the two men he called father. 

"I can't...I try to remember things but it all slips away like a Jovades in water." Connor trembled. "Then I feel like...being like I was..since Father came back."

"It's easier to live like that, just be and don't have to think. But it's a bad way to be, Connor. I've been there and I know," Angel said, touching his face. Connor let him. "We'll make this right some how. But until then, we're going to find you a room to stay in, okay. Get you some food since you didn't like that stuff." Angel nodded at the abandoned tray.

"Yes, you must eat. You're thinner than usual," Holtz said.

"He's always looked like a Giacometti," Angel said. "Must take after his mother."

"A what?" Faith asked for Connor who looked just as confused.

"Alberto Giacometti, you know? The surrealist? Did sculptures of these super skinny people?" Angel urged her to remember and look disappointed when he realized she had no clue.

"Uh-huh."

"Angel's an art geek," Spike said, rolling his eyes. "Art, and books."

"And Barry Manilow."

"Faith!" Angel said and Faith saw Spike's eye light up. 

"Sorry ,big guy. Come on, there's an empty room next to mine, Connor. It'll be nice and quiet," Faith said and Spike looked deeply disappointed. Angel seemed relieved. 

Connor looked over at Holtz.

"I suspect I'm heading back to where they're holding me," Holtz said. "Don't worry, it is not a bad place." He stroked Connor's hair. "And then I'll be back home. It's been a long time since I've seen it."

"I hear that," Spike said. "Wouldn't mind going with you to England. I can tell the kid all the embarrassing shit that his dad got himself into over the years."

"Faith, have Harmony call that pet cemetery she used for her kitty," Angel said. "We'll need a little egg-shaped container for Spike's ashes."

"You could always use them for cement and make your own sculpture with him," Faith said.

"Hey! I thought you liked me." Spike pouted.

She beamed at him. "I kid because I love."

"Maybe she does. I don't." Angel put a hand on Connor's shoulder. "Let's get you settled. I'll show you where Holtz is staying if it'll make you feel better."

Connor nodded and they all swung past the small interior room that was passing as Holtz's cell. Connor seemed mollified and left Holtz there without a fuss. They got the boy settled into the room next to Faith's. Angel went to arrange for food for his son, happier than he had seemed in a long time. Faith went into her room and flopped on the couch, looking up at Spike.

"You've a nasty streak, girl," he said.

"Lighten up, Spike. You can handle a little teasing."

He snorted. "I can handle plenty." He still had a little hurt look that made Faith wonder about that. "How can you guarantee quiet?" 

"You have a fried dick. Ain't nothing happening there. Should take a picture for the guys back home." Faith grinned wickedly.

"Not happening. And I'll be healed soon enough." Spike went sober. "But I'm not expecting from you, Faith, just so you know. I don't want you feeling pressured."

"No man makes me do anything I don't want to do," she assured him. "Just kinda wish I knew what was between us."

"We're just more of those touches of grey," he said. "Best not to put it under too much light or it'll fritter away."

_Or we'll see it for what it is and get scared or angry at ourselves_, she thought. "I'm more of a 'in the now' kinda girl, don't examine things too closely. I'm just glad there's a chance this will all work out."

He nodded. "Yeah. Hey, even Peaches deserves a little happiness but I can't wait to see him try to explain this to Buffy."

"Don't kid yourself Spike, you're still evil." She smiled.

He laughed. "I'm the big bad, luv. You look beat, get some sleep."

"And hey, no more dreams about Angel dying." Faith sighed. "I can get some good sleep."

She watched Spike leave. She didn't know where things were going between them, if they were going anywhere. She'd just do what felt right even if it was in that murky grey area. She was happy that she was key in getting Angel back his son. She had done well on this mission. Maybe she'd be a good Slayer after all. Content with thinking Angel, Giles, Robin and the others would be proud of her, Faith shuffled off to her bedroom. She knew there was a lot of work yet to do but she felt confident it would all work out in the end in a big bright swirl of color. 

_I will get by I will get by I will get by I will survive   
The shoe is on the hand that fits there's really nothing much to it   
Whistle through your teeth and spit cuz it's alright   
Oh well a touch of grey kinda suits you anyway   
And that was all I had to say and it's alright _

_Touch of Grey - The Grateful Dead_

Challenge requirements:

the main character(s) must be Spike and/or Faith

Use this dialogue: FAITH:   
"Staring problem?" 

SPIKE:   
"No, jus' taking stock of your wounds—how you feeling?" 

FAITH:   
"Like a hostage." 

SPIKE:   
"Fair enough. Just featured you'd still be sore." 

FAITH:   
"I'm good. Better than when you dragged me in here, and apparently still breathin' so, can't really complain." 

SPIKE:   
"You were tossing about all night, you sleep okay?" 

FAITH:  
"Not really, pain kind'a an intrusion on the whole sleep concept. What's with you and the twenty questions anyway?"

  
  



End file.
